Home, home at last

 Day 72: August 3, 2021

We decide to head to Mildon Drive!

I couldn’t wait to see my dog! Fleur was so excited to see me—and vice versa. Dan drove most of the 328 miles to get home, through a ton of orange barrels and slow-N-go traffic. That said, we had our eye on the prize. That’s not to say that tempers were absent when trying to back into our driveway! My, those tree branches grew a LOT in the past 10+ weeks! Luckily the basketball backboard was three inches away from the RoadHouse as she was moving past….

Our Ohio Vacation Home, parked on our driveway. She has so much mud on her that it almost looks like we’ve been off-roading. Nothing quite so dramatic…😂

Let’s look back at our trip….

By the numbers:

72 Days

10+ Weeks

8020 towing miles, 13,000+ miles overall. 

17 States (to count, one has to sleep overnight in the state, per Dan)

  Ohio

  Illinois

  Iowa

  Nebraska

  South Dakota

  Wyoming

  Colorado

  Montana

  Idaho

  North Dakota

  Utah

  Oregon

  Washington

  California

  Minnesota

  Wisconsin

  Indiana

Only 2 State Capitals 

    

Helena, Montana

Springfield, Illinois

National Parks, Recreation Areas, Historic Sites  (In no particular order)

        Lincoln Home National Historic Site     

        Badlands National Park

        Devil’s Tower National Monument

        Minuteman National Missile Site

        Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument

        Pompey’s Pillar National Monument

        Big Horn National Forest

        Dinosaur National Monument

        City of Rocks National Reserve

        Minidoka Resettlement Camp National Historic Site

        Mount Rainier National Park

        Olympic National Park

        Redwood National Park

        Lassen Volcanic National Park

        Crater Lake National Park

        Mount Hood National Park

        Theodore Roosevelt National Park

        Effigy Mounds National Monument

State Parks

        Alum Creek SP, Ohio

        Sangris  Lake SP, Illinois

        Fairport State Recreation Area, Iowa

        Snake Creek State Recreation Area, South Dakota

        Johnson Lake State Recreation Area, Nebraska

        Boyd Lake SP, Colorado

        Fred Hayes SP, Starvation Reservoir, Utah

        Lake Walcott SP, Idaho

        Emigrant Springs SP, Oregon

        William N Tugman SP, Oregon

        Joseph Stewart State Recreation Area, Oregon

Books Read (I had great intentions to do a lot of knitting. But when push came to shove, I found out that I wanted to keep an eye on the road and the scenery and not miss it. So I actually had a hard time keeping track of my knitting and finally just put it away. I made a few potholders on a little potholder loom for brainless fun. This blog ended up being my creative outlet for the trip!) The audio books we both listened to; the print books were downloaded to my Kindle app from the library and the one on the serial killer babysitter was an impulse buy from Dotty’s Bookstore in Park City. At least I think that was the name of the store!

          A PROMISED LAND, Barack Obama (audio)

          MR. HUMBLE AND DR. BUTCHER, Brandy Schillace

          SUSAN, LINDA, NINA, & COKIE: THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE FOUNDING MOTHERS OF NPR, Lisa Napoli

          THE DISAPPEARANCE OF LYDIA HARVEY, Julia Laite

          THE LOST APOTHECARY, Sarah Penner

          THE BOMBER MAFIA: A DREAM, A TEMPTATION, AND THE LONGEST NIGHT OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR, Malcolm Gladwell (audio)

          REBECCA, Daphne du Maurier 

          THE DOCTORS BLACKWELL: HOW TWO PIONEERING SISTERS BROUGHT MEDICINE TO WOMEN AND WOMEN TO MEDICINE, Janice P. Nimura

          BEARTOWN, Fredrick Backman (audio)

          THE CODE BREAKER: JENNIFER DOUDNA, GENE EDITING, AND THE FUTURE OF THE HUMAN RACE, Walter Isaacson (audio)

        THE BABYSITTER: MY SUMMERS WITH A SERIAL KILLER, Liza Rodman

        THE FIFTH RISK: UNDOING DEMOCRACY, Michael Lewis (audio)

        ASTROPHYSICS FOR PEOPLE IN A HURRY, Neil deGrasse Tyson (audio)

        THE WIFE, Meg Wolitzer (audio)

        (And, finally, this was started but not finished before the end of the trip: PRETTY THINGS, Janelle Brown)

      

Now that we’re home, I may find it substantially harder to put in my reading time. So many books. So little time!

Funny Names: We got a kick out of clever names for coffee shops. Washington and Oregon were full of these little boxes serving coffee, sometimes with sweets. You drive up to the window, get your coffee, and drive away. Here are some of the fun names we liked:

        BEAN ME UP COFFEE

        THE JITTER HOUSE

        MONSTERS MOCHAS

        COFFEE BRAKE

        THE HUMAN BEAN

        ELIXER EXPRESS

        SEASIDE BUZZ

        COAST CRUISER COFFEE

        ONE LUMP OR TWO?

        THE BUZZ BOX (not sure if this was a coffee shop or cannabis shop!)

        THE LEAN BEAN

        SPILL THE BEANS

        WAKE UP CALL COFFEE

        FUEL SHACK

        JOE 2 GO

Other funny names:

        THAI ME UP (Thai food)

        ANDY’S CHOP SHOP (Hair cuts)

        JUMPING FLEA MARKET

        HIPPY TRIP (Cannabis shop)

        BUSY BUBBLES LAUNDROMAT

From the Tippy Cow Cafe: Tip our staff, not our cows.

Friends we got to visit:

      

Dan with Ben Babcock, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Frank Heiliger, April Mason, Dan and Jean, Fort Collins, Colorado

Robert Fish, Sue Waller Fish, Seattle (Black Diamond), Washington

Jean with Viktoria Davis, Madelia, Minnesota

Donna Anne Higgins, with her mom, Shirley Higgins, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin

Our magnetic US sticker map is getting filled in. Dan made the “rule” that we can’t add a sticker until we’ve SLEPT in a state. Eating lunch there, using the rest stops, those things don’t count. 

Before we left on our trip

After we returned….we slept in a lot of states!

It’s now ten days since we returned to Mildon Drive. We had a fun weekend with both of our boys home and our new future daughter-in-law here and while the house was in disarray, it was so much fun just to BE with everyone. I’ve missed my people!  We’ve seen Ray and Clarice a couple of times, and my brother invited us over for his annual pig roast. Good stuff. 

My musings have led me to a real appreciation for all the state and national parks that we have in this country. Their value to the psychic well-being of our nation can’t be underestimated. Thoreau said that in wilderness is the preservation of the world. I think he may have something there. On this 10+ week trip, we had overcast and hazy conditions for many of the weeks that we were out, caused by wildfires in Oregon, California, Idaho and Canada. Air quality (and photo quality) were affected and some of the time we could even SMELL the smoke! Reservoirs were under half capacity. There was drought everywhere we went, or so it seemed. The most delightful weather was along the west coast, and then the heat domes and their record-setting temperatures followed us everywhere we went until we got to western Wisconsin. Almost like the apocalypse. It’s sobering and depressing.

It’s good to be home. MANY loads of laundry have been done and even though we have weeded a ton, there is a ton MORE to do on the “weed front”. It’s been pretty tropical steamy here…not my favorite. But it’s fun to bring the energy from the road back home…lots to do here!

Dan and I will be living off these memories of our epic trip for a long, long time!

Next Up: I promised Shanna that we would come out to see her and Jake and their dog since we missed their wedding….and I’d like to go up to Michigan—that would add another sticker to the map!—for a fall visit. Time to start planning!