We made it home……

April 5, 2009 – 10:18pm

Well, we left Florida on Thursday morning and spent three nights on the road dry camping on our way home. Thursday night we stayed over night at a rest area  on the highway. With trucks coming in and out and idling all night long, I really didn’t get a decent night sleep that night. Friday night was great because by coincidence we were trying to find a Walmart to stay at and found the Charles Town Casino & Race Track in West Virginia! And what a casino it was. They have an over flow lot for RVers to stay over night in. When we got there, there were three campers parked there and by morning light there was eight campers there that stayed over night. That casino was off the highway, like, 18 miles off the highway but definitely worth it. I’m talking to you RVers out there 🙂 Hint Hint. Great place to stay and the casino was huge. (I lost twenty bucks there)

Talk about losing money…….Saturday night we stayed over night at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. I never do good at Mohegan Sun with their slot machines. They have a convenient over flow lot for RVers and they have security driving around there all night long. Both of the casinos I’ve mentioned do have a shuttle from your RV to the casino.

We rolled into New Hampshire at 9am this morning (Sunday). Parked the Montana without incident at my cousin’s house and unloaded 1/2 the accumulated stuff in it. I never thought I collected so much over 4 months. I’ve got a Kokopelli wind chime from Hoover Dam, a Kokopelli jacket from Mexico, t-shirts from casinos, wall pictures from Mexico, a Mickey “teddy bear” from Disney World, a slot machine cash out ticket worth a penny from a Harrah’s Casino in New Orleans, two books and neat SnagIt software from my WordCamp Conference in Las Vegas, a deck of cards from Laughlin Nevada, a baseball cap and pen from Charles Town Casino & Race Track, a new camera from Las Vegas, a new Blackberry cell phone from McAllen Texas, alot of casino player’s cards, and don’t get me started on how many pictures I’ve taken!

Of all the places I’ve traveled to, I would have to say that San Antonio is still my number one favorite place to see. My second would be….well let’s just list them out from number one to number five. Number 1) San Antonio, 2)Las Vegas, 3)Kissimmee, 4)Mexico, and 5)Yuma (Arizona).

I heard alot of people say that they were worried about us being so close to the Mexico border with all the killing and kidnapping going on these day in that area. As I look back, I never feel threatened or afraid to go in and out of Mexico as long as you go with other people that have experience in crossing in and out of Mexico (my aunt and uncle) and talk to patrol officers. We did talk to patrol officers in the area and they were more than happy to direct us to a very safe border entrance into Mexico. We did enter Pregreso Mexico and everything was fine with alot of other snowbirds shopping and visiting in that part of Mexico. This part of Mexico welcomes  us because we are supporting them and their families with our purchases.

Other than that, this trip went off without a hitch and ended beautifully. No accidents, no close calls, no one got sick, no one got injured, everything was great. We logged 11,500 miles. I would love to hop right back in that RV and take off again going to new places, meeting new people, and seeing new sights…..it really is a world by itself…..it really is.

Now………

What do I say, what do I say???? Never wanted to think it would come to this, but unfortunately, like a snowbird season, this RV blog must end. I don’t want to ponder too long on my thoughts so I’ll just write what comes to mind. First off, without a doubt, I’m so happy that I took the time to log my journey. I did exactly 115 blog entries in the last four and a half months. It was definitely time consuming but I don’t want to deter any traveler from not keeping a blog active. It’s definitely worth it! Normally a blog is updated two, maybe three times a week. I just went wild with mine! 🙂

It made me laugh when my parents called someone back home and started to tell them about something that had happened on our trip or where we’ve been and the person that they were talking to would nicely cut them off and say, “Yeah, I know all that already because we read it in the blog.” That sure made me laugh. I’ve had a lot of requests of people that want a copy of this whole blog, so I’m not sure how I will accommodate them, it’ll be a project I will work on in the next few weeks.

This week we have alot to do. Alot of catching up. I haven’t even done my taxes yet, I need to renew my passport (yep, it’s been 10 years) and Jake needs to take care of some of his annual shots with his doctor (okay, vet) later this month. OH, before you ask….Jake was great the whole trip. A great traveling companion and we never had a problem or issue with him. We made him as comfortable as possible and it paid off with him being a good little traveling trooper! 🙂

I had alot of visitors to my blog over the last few months. At this time, it’s at a total of 5,590 hits. Thanks for following along. I had two people that let me know today that they followed my trip and welcomed me home via email. I didn’t even know who they were.

I’ve had two other people ask me what was different about this RV trip then my previous RV trips. What a good question! I hate to say that it was exactly the same trip (which in a way it was), but the only biggest thing about this trip is that I logged it all down for future reference. The route we took on this trip was the same as our previous trip and I guess it’s safe to say that on the next trip I will plan ahead a little more to see more things off the beaten path. There is alot to see out there….we’ve been to factories that make dates (yummy), horse drawn carriage tour of Jackson Square in New Orleans, enjoyed the grand opening of two casinos, picked our own oranges, and saw the picking and assembly process of where our food comes from (and I mean fields of it).

It was great! But, now down to business and enjoying the summer in New Hampshire! To my home town friends – I’m back to bug you all! To my RVing friends – I’ll catch up with you…..down the road. 🙂