The Millers Go RVing -the Conclusion

So it's Day 27 and we are sleeping at a truck stop. Because we had the windows open for air movement, the guys who decided to fire up a truck nearby and shout at each other at 3am woke us up. R misunderstood me to say I want to get home by daybreak (in reality it was 'not before daylight'), so he started driving again.

At 7am on Sunday, July 10, we pulled into our driveway. I made everyone pose for this photo, even though we definitely look the worse for wear. A couple days without much sleep or a shower will do that to ya. Chances are the Yoders are thinking "Wow, glad they didn't show up on our doorstep looking like that!"

The guy on the right is [finally] grinning broadly because he is only a shower and 10 minutes away from the love of his life. There may or may not be differences of opinions on whether it was very generous that we didn't make him stay to help unload the RV. Believe it or not, we were young and in love once upon a time, too. 

I'll let you guess which ones of us worshiped at Saint Mattress that morning. We are firm believers in 'not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together', but that morning it would have been totally pointless to attend services when we could barely remain in an upright position, let alone alert enough to hear the preaching of the Word. What is it about traveling that whips one's butt? I haven't been this exhausted since... well, since traveling home from Ghana in January, and traveling home from Canada last summer. 

The first thing we noticed when we arrived home is how much everything had grown. Especially the weeds. No landscaping fairies worked their magic while we were gone. Eventually it dawned on us that the certain kind of insects that were increasing in volume when we left were now gone.    

Throughout the course of the next week, we worked at unloading the RV, cleaning it, uploading the 3000 photos we took, tallying up our miles and expenses, catching up on laundry & sleep. Our church had VBS that week, and for the first time in forever, we had zero involvement. It felt good to have a few extra days of isolation before getting back into the grind. 

The good news is that our dollar-per-mile cost for the trip was better than we feared, with the repairs. When we were in the planning stages of the trip, I wanted to know if the budget we had was realistic aka did we have enough money saved up yet? In our experience, most experienced RVers are pretty tight-lipped about what they spent. Finally someone disclosed they traveled for $1 per mile almost a decade ago. Thank you! That's all I needed to know. Somewhere else I came across a figure of $250 per day -I think that was for a retired couple, not a family. So we were aiming for a figure adjusted slightly for inflation and/or family size. If we cheat and subtract all the repair bills, we traveled for a cool 69 cents a mile. If we do it right, we traveled for $1.40 a mile. So we are satisfied.   

One of our children may or may not have been rolling their eyes when R & I were debating mid-trip how much we might be spending per day and whether that means we fit squarely in the "tight-wad" category or not. Oh, and another tidbit for anyone who might be planning their trip of a lifetime, I was told to take lots of quarters for laundry, that it takes more than you would think, but no specifics on what constitutes "lots". You'll want at least $60-70 worth.

We had planned to have house sitters, but that didn't work out, so we closed up the house while we were gone. I must say I was amazed to discovered young people these days no longer are interested in house sitting. Back in the day, it was a gift. Apparently now days its viewed as an inconvenience. What rock did I crawl out from under? I mean, why would anyone in their right mind want to keep house after a long day at work when you can live at home where mom does your laundry & cooks your meals for free? lol. But I digress. The upside of closing up the house was having our privacy intact and saving on electric. The downside turned out to be that the water in the well went stagnant. It stank so bad we could hardly drink without holding our nose! That was in spite of a filter for drinking water. Doing laundry caused that whole area of the house to stink. Didn't see that one coming. We have a mystery on our hands, too. We turned off & unplugged everything possible -from biggies like a/c & refrigerator to small stuff like CD players, and cut the power to the shop completely, so we were expecting to have the lowest electric bill in history. Instead it was only slightly lower than usual. What gives? We need an energy audit.      

Because everyone knows one of the best parts of a trip is sorting through your loot afterwards... My souvenirs: 

Clockwise, starting at the top right- pine cone from CO, [a baggie containing] some kind of fluff that was falling off the trees in Colorado Springs, [a baggie containing] my contraband stalk of flowers, pecans from KS, jar of huckleberry jam from MT, puzzle from Yosemite/CA, National Parks scrapbooking kit purchased at Mt Rushmore/SD, Adventures in Odyssey CDs from Focus on the Family, Grand Canyon magnet from AZ. Center:Yellowstone sweatshirt from WY, Golden Gate postcard from CA, stone & crab claw from OR.  

Of course, the real treasures of the trip are memories & photos.   

Would I do it over again? Yes, in a heartbeat. My conviction on that needed some space/perspective to grow, but yes, I would travel long distance in an RV with the whole family again. We are not a model family, but we got along reasonably well for 27 days in tight quarters, and the kids did good (for the most part) at appreciating the opportunity. Maybe next time something a little smaller, but Big Bertha was what we needed this time, for a family of 5. I would hope the experience we've gained would spare us some of the stress next time around. Now that we know about things like taking a suitcase just in case and cinching up awning because you just never know when you might hit a windstorm. I would hope next time we wouldn't be blessed with the multiple breakdowns. We should keep Big Bertha now that she is all blinged out and better than when we found her, but she is FOR SALE. Any takers? 

We planned & saved for years for this trip and it's sad not to have it to look forward to anymore. It's over already! There are some places we are happy we got to see, but once is enough. Other places- we can't wait to go back. We are already saving for the next trip, and debating the merits of doing Colorado or the California - Seattle stretch first. We loved the entire west coast- we want to explore it all some more. Not just San Francisco. But we loved Colorado, too. The dilemma there is we need to go in the winter to ski, but also in the summer to catch the whitewater rafting & things we missed the first time.     

 "I haven't been everywhere, but its on my list" -Susan Sontag   

So that concludes the account of our western trip adventure. Thanks for traveling memory lane with us! 

It is good to have an end to journey toward; 

but it is the journey that matters in the end. 

-Ernest Hemingway