Day 37 – Home Again
On Friday, April 23rd, we left the Anelare Winery at 7am and made the short 3.5 hour drive home, a little sad that our trip was drawing to a close, but happy to be able to sleep in our own bed.
Reflecting on our trip, we had some amazing experiences. The highlights were:
- Driving on Rte. 66
- Camping at Spring Hill, Arkansas
- Eating pizza and drinking beer at the Mayday Brewery in Murfreesboro, TN
- Camping and spending 10 days with Melissa, Mark and our grandkids: Tegen, Evelyn, Piper and Tripp
- Visiting the Scotsman General Store in Laurel, Mississippi where the HGTV show Hometown is filmed
- Spending time with Noel & Mike in New Orleans and Humble, TX
- Playing Golf with Ron, Rick, Marv & his son, visiting with Kris
- Making some fun new memories with Ellen, Bernie, Courtney & Leonard while staying at Ellen & Bernie's in Mesa, AZ
- Visiting the Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks
- Spending our last night taking in the amazing views at the Anelare Winery in Benton City, WA near Tri-cities.
Some interesting sidenotes:
- Our trip lasted 37 days
- We didn't eat out for a single meal during the first 10 days (Karen did a great job meal planning)
- We drove a total of 158 hours, 8,385 miles (typically we drive 7,000 miles per year!)
- We drove through 17 states, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana
- We averaged 12 mpg
- We spent $2,068.09 on gas
- We only used about 1/2 tank of propane the entire trip
- We didn't have a single drop of rain on our windshield on our drive back from North Carolina (although we had a thunderstorm in New Orleans and it sprinkled for 15 minutes in AZ, but not while we were driving)
We have several more trips planned for this spring and summer and are already talking about some other national parks we would like to visit, like Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.
Can't wait for our next adventure!
