Regrettably Returning Home (AKA...All good things come to an end)...September 14 - Day 19

(Kim's Perspective)
Not having to drive very far, we were not motivated to end our vacation and return to the reality of work and the real world.  <sigh>  Even so, we were up at 5:40, hitched up, dumped our tanks, and were on the road by 7am.  We stopped to get gas at a BP - and it was one of the cleanest, nicest gas stations I've ever been in.  I grabbed two bottled frappuccinos and was surprised to hear "Send The Light" playing on the radio.  :)  The clerk at the counter was super friendly and polite and talked with the thickest Southern accent you've ever heard.  :)  We got back on the road and drove through some heavy fog...

 ...before it finally lifted and the skies cleared.

Our ever faithful travel companion didn't seem all that enamored by the idea of returning home either.  Or, at least that's what I'm going to tell myself.  I do however, have a tendency to anthropomorphize.  :) 

The trip back was uneventful (AKA anticlimactic and photo worthy free) and we arrived back at the compound around 3pm.  We were quite pleased with the results of the work we had done while we were gone...

We chatted with Joe a while, packed up our stuff and put the camper back in its stationary living state.  Around 7, we begrudgingly headed back to the place where all of our stuff is.  At the end of the day, home is where the heart is and, sadly, mine is still in Colorado.  Even so, it was a fabulous vacation.  It was nice to have the 2.5 weeks (despite the knowledge and persistent reminder of what a 4 month trip is like) to do the things we love to do.  The Sitts were great company and fun travel companions and I'm glad they were able to share the experience with us.  Bill and I made a ton of new memories that we'll forever carry with us and always look back on with great fondness.  Plus, we always have the blog which allows us to relive these moments again and again and again.  :)  

So....our 19 day, 5,281 mile (plus 600+ MC miles!) travel adventure was one of the best times of my life.  I already miss it and yearn to be on the road again.  I feel blessed to live in a country where we can freely travel, to be blessed with good health, to be blessed with good friends, to be blessed with my fuzzy butt Adventure Kitteh, and to be blessed with my awesome husband whom I can share my life, my hobbies, my time, and my love with.  Thanks, Baby, for another spectacular trip.  I love you and can't wait to do it again!!

Cave Run Lake - Daniel Boone National Forest...September 13 - Day 18

(Kim's Perspective)
We were positively exhausted when we woke around 7:00 this morning, but because it was a Wal-Mart parking lot, sleeping in wasn't exactly an option.  We tossed on our clothes, did the packing up routine and jumped in the truck.  I jumped back out to commemorate our lovely camping experience with a photo...

....and then we drove across the street to the gas station to fill up and put air in the tires.  After all those gas fill-ups yesterday, our credit card company finally caught up and recognized "unusual activity", so I had to place a quick call to authorize our continued transactions.  For the record, we're 18 days into a vacation using this card exclusively and they're just NOW getting around to recognizing unusual activity?  Seriously? 

We drove along and neither one of us spoke, nor did we turn on the radio.  We were both in a somewhat functioning comatose state and neither one of us wanted to be driving.  We drove through the rest of Indiana and then crossed into Kentucky.  We were both so tired, we decided it was stupid to push through and get home - it's only Saturday after all - so I did a little mapping and found a nice state park for us to chill out for the day.  We arrived around 11am and spent some time looking for a nice camping spot.  We found a great site in loop C ("C" for Cardinal) and were the only ones in the entire loop.  Huh?  It's Saturday.  Where is everyone?  Who cares!  We have the whole place to ourselves.  We set up...

 ...and then turned on the water heater, ate lunch, took showers, and then took a nice long nap.  We woke up around 3 and then went for a walk around the campground.  While we were walking, we spotted a bald eagle circling above us.  I thought it was kind of odd that I hadn't spotted any eagles at all and when I finally did see one, it was in Kentucky of all places.

There was a hiking trail off of the end of the campground loop, so we headed into the woods and were surprised by how nice it was.

Umm....that's cool.

Every so often, the trail would get close to the lake and the trees would open up a bit to give us a nice view...

 

 We walked on for a bit and stumbled across some interesting mushrooms and trees...

 

 ...and took time for a shadow picture.

We realized the trail only paralleled the lake and didn't actually take us to it, so we turned around after a couple of miles and headed back.  We went off trail and pushed our way through the weeds and brush to get to the lake.

The views by the water were quite nice...

 We walked back through the woods and picked up the trail again...

...(and apparently picked up a bunch of chiggers along the way) and returned to the campsite to chill.  Bill read his Kindle while I supervised an Adventure Kitteh outing...

and took a few more photos of the campsite and surrounding area...

We realized we were losing daylight, so we went for a drive to see the other areas of the park.  We stopped at the beach area for a bit...

and enjoyed the sunset...

 

The temp was dropping quickly and it was somewhat breezy, so we walked back to the truck...

...and drove around the rest of the campground loops making note of the especially nice sites.  After all, Kentucky is close enough that we could visit again for a long weekend.  :)  As we drove back, Bill spotted this flower growing alongside the road and pointed it out.  It reminded me of a Rose of Sharon (though the rest of the plant just looked like a big weed).

It quickly grew dark, so we went back to the camper and I dumped photos onto the laptop and worked on drafting the blog while Bill read.  Considering we started out the day as a bunch of miserable pups, it ended on a really great note.  And, best of all, we're not home yet.  :-D

Driving 1,000+ Miles in CO, KS, MO, IL, and IN...September 12 - Day 17

(Kim's Perspective)
We needed to log some miles today, so we made plans to be up early and on the road at 6:00am.  We quickly got dressed and grabbed a few things and opened the camper door to this...

Oh.  It's snowing.  <boggle> HAHAHAHAHAHA!!  Why this amused us so, I'm not sure, but we thought it was pretty cool to wrap up our time in Colorado with a little snow.  Having the luxury of being in a level spot and connected to the trailer made for a quick departure.  It took longer to take a few pictures than to actually pack up.

I did have to spend a few minutes getting the snow off of the slide so we didn't have to clean up a wet mess later.

Better to melt in sink than drip on floor.  ~ Confucius  (HA!)

We jumped in the truck and headed out of the park.  I asked Bill to stop so I could snap a quick pic of the park sign.

We headed north on 115 and made our way over to 24 east towards Peyton.  Though we were confident that the sun was steadily rising in the east, we really couldn't tell because of the heavy fog and overcast skies.  Well, that and the occasional snow showers.  :)

 We did know that it was quite frigid outside...

...but we were alert and happy and still enjoying the sights.

It took a few hours before we left...

...and crossed into...

Knowing that Kansas would suck the life right out of us, we grabbed coffee at one of the gas stops.  Armed with two Venti Salted Caramel Mochas with Soy Milk and Light Whip (yes, you know exactly what that makes me), we were ready to roll.

Map, Cat, Coffee....Check.

As always, I tried to appreciate Kansas for what it is, but what it isn't is photo worthy (at least not the parts near the highway), so the camera stayed tucked in the glove box most of the time.  I brought it out occasionally to take a pic of the endlessly droning road and clouds...

...and of course our oh-so-adaptable Adventure Kitteh...

No one told Lane he shouldn't drink and drive.

We continued to drive on 70 towards K.C.

...crossed into Missouri...

and made it to Kansas City around 5pm....right at rush hour.  There was a major backup for several miles on 70, so we took their little 435 beltway around town....gah....that took forever....and jumped off onto 40 and back onto 70 after the traffic jam.  We drove, and drove, and drove some more.  All of our stops were NASCAR style and we were in and out of almost every gas station in less than 15 minutes.  We were having a great time though.  We both felt great, we were listening to tunes, munching on road trip snacks, talking about the trip and our plans for our new home, and were just generally content and happy.  It was dark when we made it to STL, but even in the dark and 7 years later, I still recognized the exits and roads from my business trips to the MMT plant.  We drove past the Arch (though it looks more like a Stargate in this terrible photo)...

...and kept on driving.  We passed through Illinois and finally into Indiana.  At this point, we were nearing the 1,000 mile mark of straight driving and were also getting quite tired.  I was trying to figure out where we could stay that would let us achieve the RV version of the Iron Butt.  There's not a whole lot in Indiana, so we ended up camping in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Evansville.  Naturally, the GPS took us on the most ridiculous, round about route to get there and it was 1:00am by the time we pulled in.  We had been driving for 18 hours (19 if you count the time zone change) and we were both mentally and physically done.  It's amazing how sitting there doing nothing can be so exhausting.  I understand why Bill was tired - he drove THE WHOLE WAY.  You might not think driving 1,000 miles in 18 hours in a pick up truck while pulling a 31' travel trailer is exceptionally difficult.  I can tell you that you'd be wrong.  We actually ended up driving 1042 miles and if you do the math, that averages to about 58mph.  Yes, the speed limit is 75 most of the way, but it's really not safe to push travel trailer tires past the 60/65mph mark, so the speedo was sitting on 65 most of the way.  If you do the additional math (which hurts) and realize we had to fill up every 175 miles for gas....yep...we were averaging about 7 MPG....you'll soon realize it was indeed a bit of a challenge and a big accomplishment.  We had to stop for gas about 10 times that day (cha-ching!) so the combined gas stops took several hours out of our day.  Throw in some construction areas and rush hour traffic and *poof* 18 hours just flew by.  Once we were parked, we were too tired to even mess with trying to get the camper level or even stabilized, so we climbed into bed, prayed and thanked God for the safe traveling mercies He gave us, and were asleep by 1:30.  While it did not make for a very exciting blog entry, it did make for a very memorable day for both of us.  After all, it's a road trip and who doesn't love those??  :)