The journey is complete!

We undertook this trip to see the last of the 48 continental United States. We accomplished that goal by camping in California. While we'd visited Washington State and California by air, we'd never camped there, so we didn't feel we'd really "seen" them and didn't qualify to put our sticker for that state on our map. Yes, we have one of those! LOL It's mounted on plexiglass and rides in the RV.

We covered 9,660 miles and saw some really beautiful country. Even if it wasn't the most beautiful spot, it was still unique in that we'd never seen it or there was nothing like it in Alabama.

We visited 21 states on this trip.

We didn't eat out a whole lot. Most of the funds were taken up with fuel costs. If you've been following our blog, you'll know that I recorded most of our gas stops. I might have missed a couple in Washington State, but you get the idea of the upward rise in cost. Some people asked us why we didn't wait a year to see what was going to happen with fuel prices. The answer is easy: How often do gas prices go down significantly? If we'd waited another year, the fuel would probably be higher, we'd be a year older and who knows what next year will bring?

We enjoyed meeting old friends on the road and enjoyed making new friends. Each is special to us. Thanks for dinners, lunches, hugs, and your friendship!

Thanks to all of you who prayed for our safety and things that were happening here at home. It's great to have friends who take care of things for you. Then you have neighbors who go above and beyond the call of duty. All of you will never know how much you mean to us.

We're working on next year's trip already with the idea of going to Prince Edward Island. We've been to three of the Canadian Provinces so far, so we'll start adding to that list of stickers! LOL We watched a marathon of "Anne of Green Gables" on PBS when that was the only channel we could pick up. I've since read the books and think I'd like to spend a couple of weeks on PEI. Who knows? I may change my mind and head to Alaska!

Thanks for reading the blog. We hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them!

We'll see you down the road at some point in life!

Jenny and David :)

Day 51 - Homeward Bound!

Spent an interesting evening at the Days Inn/RV Park. Had breakfast free - wow! Danish for me and waffle for David. I'm sure we'll stop somewhere later to eat some real food! We pulled out about 8:00 a.m. headed for Memphis and the turn home.

We reached Tennessee at 9:20 a.m., Mississippi at 9:52 a.m. and Alabama at 12:17 p.m. Getting closer to home!

We saw more crop dusters....uhhh, aerial applicators...only here they're call "Agricultural Aviators." Does anyone know why they're all yellow planes?

We came through the new Corridor X/Future I-22 from Memphis to Birmingham. Since we last came through here, a new section was opened up and it cut about 30 minutes off our travel time. Only problem was a car was stalled on Arkadelphia Road in Birmingham and it backed up 18 wheelers, cars, and us for about 30 minutes. We finally pulled in about 3:30 p.m. It was good to see my mother's house (where we keep our RV).

We didn't unload a whole lot so we could get home to our house! It's been 2 months since we've seen it. Can't tell you how good it looked! The bed felt even better! LOL

Wrap-up coming in the next post!

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)

Day 50 - A very long day

Short post as it's going to be a long day. We left about 9:00 a.m. and stopped about 9:30 a.m. so I could get my blood pressure meds refilled at Wal-Mart in Oklahoma City. We left again about 10:00 a.m.!

Not much to see on this stretch of I-40. It's really rough riding!

Arkansas at 1:45 p.m. Got entertained by several yellow crop dusters.

Got to the Days Inn and Suites/RV Park in Brinkley, AR. We're about an hour west of Memphis. We'll be home tomorrow.

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)

Day 49 - Alabama meets Oklahoma!

We headed out early to OKC because we're meeting Donna, another of my online friends. We've come close to meeting before, but never could work it out, so today is the day!

It was nice and cool when we pulled out and stayed cool most of the day.

Just past Groom, TX we saw a leaning water tower. It really is leaning! LOL

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/1266

One thing I saw along I-40 that I REALLY liked! A rest area with a tornado shelter! That was just perfect! LOL I did see one really funny looking "vehicle" on a side road that looked like the TIV.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_Intercept_Vehicle

At 4:00 p.m. we met Donna at the campground! We've been emailing for years, but it marked our first visit. We went to dinner at a GREAT BBQ restaurant. Best ribs I've ever had! Chrissy really like visiting with Donna, too! LOL

All too soon we had to stop talking and go back to the campground. Donna lives in Tulsa so she had a drive back. It was great to finally meet her.

On a somewhat sad note: Our vacation will be ending here, but it's going to take two hard days of driving for David to get us home. My mother is back home from my sister's and she's not doing well. We've arranged for friends to help with her care until we get home. We don't know yet what's ahead, but pray for all of us as we travel home. The next few days will be difficult, but with your prayers, we'll make it. I will continue the blog until we reach home.

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)

Day 48 - Part 2 - Palo Duro Canyon

After the main heat of the day, we headed to Palo Duro Canyon. It's gorgeous and it's hard to believe that it's Texas! It's not what you'd think you'd see!

You drive down into the canyon on an eight mile road and back up the canyon on the same eight miles. It takes a while to drive it, but it's gorgeous.

There are lots of hiking trails, bike trails, and horse trails. There are many pull-outs to view the canyon, also.

They also have a number of flash floods here, so the roads are marked where they occur and how high the water is. Not sure I'd want to camp here. Uh, yes....David did cross where the water is. Said he was cooling his brakes!

We saw lots of wild animals....deer, turkeys, tarantulas! Yes, tarantulas! No, I'll never go camping here, but was rather proud of myself for getting out of the truck and taking the photos of them. If one had turned toward me....I hate to think!

We made our way out of the canyon just before dark and just before I freaked over all the spiders! LOL

Early to bed as we have a long drive to Oklahoma City tomorrow! OH! Rain during the night and it's much cooler here!

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)

Day 48 - Part 1 - Groom, TX

We got up kind of early and headed out for a tour. We started to Palo Duro Canyon, but decided to visit there in the evening. A friend had told us about Groom, Texas so we headed there. It's the home of the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere. But it was way more than that!

Around the cross are statues and explanations of the 14 stations of the Cross. There is also sculptures of the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and the Tomb. It was very moving. We ran into a church group from Tennessee returning from a mission trip to Arizona. They were all as amazed as we were. http://www.crossministries.net/

After we spent some time there, we rode into town to the Blessed Mary Restaurant. It's the only place in town to eat. The menu has about 15 items on it and no prices. The "cash register" is a jar by the exit and you put in what you feel is proper for your meal. The two specialties are hamburgers and enchiladas. I had the hamburger and David got the enchiladas. Each table has the name of a disciple and a Bible verse. There are all sorts of religious pictures on the walls.

Check out this story about the place: http://www.route66university.com/study/inthenews/121.php

We truly enjoyed our visit to both places! Headed back to the campground for a short nap and get ready for Palo Duro Canyon.

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)

Day 47 - Amarillo by morning - errr - later afternoon

Woke up early and realized something was wrong. My left eye had something in it. Tried washing it out, but no luck, so I thought maybe I'd just scratched it. Didn't get any better. We stopped along the road at a grocery store and David got some plain tears eye drops. The pharmacist told him that if it wasn't better if a couple of hours to get it checked. Back on the road.

Strange things on the road (according to David's terminology):

Free Range Solar Fried Chicken
Dry Aged Road Kill (YUCK!)

We got to Texas at 2:30 p.m. and now we're back on Central Daylight Time.

Looked for a WalMart with an optical center along the way as the eye isn't better. We finally found one - in Amarillo. Dr. Luke and Kim could not have been nicer! Kim lives in an Airstream similar to ours! Dr. Luke took me back and started looking at my eye. He put some staining liquid in my eye, but didn't see any cuts or scratches. I'm kind of funny about my eyelids and when he flipped my lid up, I just about had a stroke! LOL It was there he saw the great offender! I had a grain of sand embedded in the upper lid! He deadened the eye so I wouldn't freak and run and very gentle cleaned the upper lid and the lower part of my eye. He told me I wouldn't know if anything else was in there until the feeling came back, but he didn't see anything else. He gave me some drops for it and told me to call his cell if I had any problems or come back on Saturday if I needed to and he wouldn't charge for a visit. He and Kim were super!

We got set up at the Amarillo Ranch RV Park. The sites are HUGE! We're right down the street from the Big Texan Steak Ranch and we planned to have dinner here. We made a reservation for 7:00 p.m. and a limo with horns showed up to pick us up. Our camping neighbor, Jerry Lewis, was waiting to go, too, so we decided to have dinner together. Dinner was great! We also had a coupon for a free desert and it was Texas-sized, too! In the picture above, you see a table near the cooking area. If you can eat a 72 oz. steak and all the trimmings within an hour, you get it free. That table is reserved for them! Unfortunately, no one was willing to try it that night. Take note of the trash can. Guess what it's for????

Here's a link to the restaurant: http://www.bigtexan.com/

We took the limo back to the campground and talked a bit. My eye feels much better. Two songs keep coming to mind: "Dust in the Wind" and "The Answer My Friend is Blowing in the Wind."

Tomorrow we'll visit Palo Duro Canyon.

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)