Saturday, June 10
We left Lake Michigan, hugged our new camping buddies goodbye, Sheila and Tim, and headed off for Wakeman Ohio. We stayed at a restaurant in Wakeman Ohio as part of the Harvest Hosts chain. When we arrived the host showed us where to park behind the restaurant and storage area along a creek bed by the trees. We relaxed for a little bit, cleaned up and then went in to have some dinner. They had a musical duo that entertained us with live music from the classics. It was a nice evening, good food, decent music, and a pleasant atmosphere.
Sunday, 6/11/23
We decided to set the alarm at 7:30 (for real) so we could get a good start on the day. We got up, decided to go to the local coffee shop, thinking that we might get breakfast there, but they only offered breakfast treats. So we went back to the RV for some breakfast with the coffee we purchased and then proceeded to maneuver the RV out from behind the storage area. Once again, Paul is a master at that! After saying goodbye to the owner, Darlene, we headed out to central Pennsylvania. Route 80 is a wonderfully maintained road which we took from Wakeman Ohio all the way through northern Pennsylvania. Somewhere along the line this morning, Paul asked if we should just go all the way home today, which would be 500 Miles! We try never to do 500 miles in one day!
Once we stopped for lunch, we talked about heading straight home and decided that we could handle it. so we hit the road with a mission after our last gas stop in Hazen Pennsylvania and booked it home an additional 287 miles. This is giving me plenty of time to think about our trip and our last day on the road.
There is a statistic that when you go on vacation, you spend the first three days decompressing from home/work life and you spend the last three days gearing up to go back to home/work life. You should always take two weeks of vacation so that you really feel like you’re rested for a full week. We took that to heart when planning a 10 week trip!
Here lies the bubble… We have been in an RV bubble for 70 days and I’ve really enjoyed that little bubble. No political nonsense, no hearing of violence and such, just being in the moment and meeting amazing people along the way.
Of all the things that we’ve done and seen, for Paul, the vastness of the Rocky Mountains stick out as a favorite place. The beauty, the changes in weather occurring minute by minute, and chill in the air, the 77 peaks above 12,000 feet and being able to say that we drove up to 12,200 feet, it’s something that he’s going to remember. For me, it was the bats coming out of Carlsbad caverns that sticks in my head. In that moment in time , we were stressed out about the car transmission blowing up, towing the car to Las Cruces and I really forced myself to focus on what was in front of me. As we got closer to the cave opening, the swirling of the bats was mesmerizing. The sound that they made as they’re creating their own breeze and the clicking of their wings as they flew off into the night was just simply amazing . I think for both of us, our other favorite spot was camping on the bluff over the Pacific Ocean, it was truly magical. The icing on the cake was being able to spend some time with Jen and Nate and just hang with them, visit a few local places, and just enjoy each others company.
it’s been a ride, an amazing joy filled, incredible ride. Even with the car transmission issue, we have made the best of it, made changes when needed and have really enjoyed each other. We are proud of what we have accomplished. Even the night before we left when we decided to change our route, my spreadsheet came in handy so that I could cancel reservations as I made new ones . People think that a spreadsheet makes the plan rigid but we have proven otherwise. It is just a lot of information in one place. There have been many times we haven’t had cell service so all those addresses were at our fingertips to plug into the RV GPS.
We arrived home safely today at 7:10 pm after 9+ hours on the road. 22 states, 11 National Parks, 7800 miles on the RV, 6700 miles on the car (6515 on the new transmission), 70 days out and about and home a day early!
Our RV travel map so far…
Above all, we are grateful and blessed and thrilled that you’ve come along on this ride with us!
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WeLcOmE HoMe!🥳🎉🎊❤