Back Home in Palm Harbor

We sure enjoyed our visit with Marcia's Brother Dean and Carol.  We had dinner with them again our last night there and met their son Jamie who had just flown in, along with his daughters who I had met the night before.   (I can't believe does these Redneck Shows because he is far from being a Redneck himself.)  Orlando is not far from where we live, and I hope we can make it over there a few times before we take off again, and perhaps Dean and Carol can come over and visit too...with or without the younger generation. 

Our drive to Palm Harbor went well.  We headed west to I-75, then down to highway 52 where we fueled up, and then made our way over to highway 54, over to the famed highway "19" (when snowbirds are around, highway 19 can be very hellish), and then home.

Now the trip is over....the memories are there...lots of them.  The blog provides lasting images and a written account, and it has given us a way to share our travels with our family, friends, and with lots of others who have stumbled upon it.  Sometime soon, after everything can be digested, I will do a "best of" blog or two.....like "Bubba and Skruffy's best memories", our top sites, our top RV places, perhaps a little about the cost of doing what we did, if I ever get around to sifting through all the receipts (good luck on that one...)

Since I left Pine Bluff on March 31st, we have driven the motor home for 11,400 miles through 23 states, over 9,600 miles with Marcia and Bubba since Skruffy and I started the trip from Arkansas to Florida to pick them up due to her hip replacement.  We (Marcia, myself and my parents) also visited the state of Nevada, which we did not put on our "visited list" only because that list is for where our American Eagle has flown through.  We had a wish list of Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Lassen, Crater Lake, Glacier, Yellowstone, and Mt. Rushmore....and we scratched each one off our list.  We also saw places like the Big Trees in Calaveras, Avenue of Giants, and Redwood National Park.  We visited Mount St. Helens, and the huge devastation which took place 32 years earlier.  While in Yellowstone, we visited the Tetons, and only wished that the smoke from the fires in Oregon and Idaho had not hidden these majestic mountains like they did.  Most of all, we were able to visit with various family members on both of sides....and we loved the time we spent with each and everyone of them.  We also enjoyed the opportunity to visit the many Calvary Chapel related churches, and enjoyed worshiping with those who were there there...and we are very appreciative of the opportunity to keep up, for the most part, with the Calvary Chapel Church in Palm Harbor that we call our "Home Church"....thanks to the Internet and the streaming sermons by Pastor Brett.  We look forward to worshiping there on Sunday.

It took us four hours of being home before we visited our favorite restaurant, Marathon, which has a wonderful new menu....wonderful because the Chicken Feta Burger is now available every day!  It took us another 15 hours before we visited our favorite breakfast restaurant, Nana's....where we both filled our longing for their San Juan Bowl.  And most of all, it was nice to be back home with John and Terra, and we look forward to seeing Marcia's brothers and their families who live nearby.

While in Florida we do plan on a few trips...with one special trip planned to the Keys.  But for now there will be a lot of work getting the motor home ready for next year.....oil change, filters changed, a good bath, wax and re-caulking, shampooing the carpet, cleaning windows and, of course, fixing the broken lift which I broke a few weeks ago in Arkansas.  Of course, we will need to get rid of items that we did not need to take, and bring a few, very few, items we wished we would have had.

So the blog will continue from time to time....but not as much as the 127 blogs over the last 190 days.  Check back, or better yet, sign up for the email notification which you can find near the bottom between the pictures of Bald Eagles with the American Flags.  And we hope to hit the road again next year sometime in March....we have not put together our wish list yet, and we are going to get  U.S. Passport Cards just in case we want to enter Canada.  

For now...I think some of us need to recover from all that traveling.....I sure know two who are happy to be home...and happy to recover the best way they know how.