9-14-2013 Santa Fe to Texas
It rained all night after arriving in
Santa Fe. Since the storms were still rumbling around, we decided to stay put
and spent the day Saturday resting and working on the blog.
We did accomplish a few things but did
not achieve what we had set out to do that day. There is always tomorrow.
9-15-2013 Our First and Last
We got a late start on Sunday but knew
that we would be under Texas skies that night. We were planning to travel about
300 miles that day but ended up piling up over 440 before we came to rest in a
picnic area for our Last night on the road and our First night back in Texas.
First we were heading to Plainview, then
to Lubbock, but could not find the RV Park, so continued on. Now Texas is big with lots of wide open spaces
and not many RV parks in between when you’re out in west Texas.
We settled in at a road side park just
before sunset. We had a beautiful view
of the sunset (which by far is the best part of the day for us) from our
elevated parking spot. Quite frankly, we
had not had too many opportunities to see many sunsets on this trip; we were
either deep in a mountain valley or the sun never set. The park was not situated right on the road so
the noise for the highway was not too bad.
We toasted our return of Texas and
reflected back on the many days that we had been away. It was a bitter sweet moment for us, we have
really enjoyed our time together and the many wonderful site and experiences
that we had encountered. Being away from
our family and friends and our normal surroundings was at times very difficult.
You knew that you could not be there to
help if needed, so the feeling of helplessness was something that you had to
work through.
To smell the sweet Texas air (when we
were not next to a feed lot) and see the open prairies, Longhorns grazing in
the field, wind generators and oil pumps bobbing up and down, we knew that our
journey would soon be over.
After a few drinks and a good supper we
settled in for the night. As we laid our
heads upon our pillows and gazed out the window, we could see the beautiful
starlit sky and the constellation Orion. We heard the sounds of the coyotes howling,
and said a few prayers thanking God for our safe return to our home land.
9-16-2013 Our final day on the road
We had just over 200 miles to travel to
the house and we were not going to set the world on fire to get there. Bob decided he needed a haircut and we began
gathering up a few things we had stuffed throughout the RV. We pulled out the clippers and trimmed up
Bob’s hair right there on the side the road. I believe that Sharon could have
hung out a sign open for business and made some gas money cutting hair. We had
several good old Texas boys honking the horn as they passed by.
When we started this trip 113 days ago,
we decided to take mostly back roads and avoid the interstate highways. In fact, we traveled less than 1000 miles on
interstate highways. We really enjoyed the sites and many little towns that we
passed through. You get to see so much more as you travel. We arrived at home 7 minutes after the time
we had departed 113 days earlier. When we parked the RV in the driveway, we had
driven 10,402 miles and had spent over 275 hours on the road driving. We used
1500 gallons of gas, 2 oil changes and came home on the same set of tires on
both vehicles. No flat tires. The windshields on both vehicle are chipped and
cracked and several chips in the paint. Oh, but what memories.
We've decided we were going to ease back
into our home life and not get in a rush to get the RV unpacked and ready to
put away. After being on the road for
that long of period of time we have a different view on the world, as well as the
hustle and bustle we were use to. After all, we lived quite comfortable in a 33
ft RV that provided us with all we needed. (We did miss the washer and dryer.) But, do we really need all the other “stuff”
that we had accumulated over the years? There are so many “things” to take care
of and to maintain. Quite frankly, it
was a little scary returning home and very overwhelming.
While we were off on our journey we had
several repairs done on the house, windows replaced, some interior and exterior
painting. You always have these
expectations of what should be accomplished and how everything would be just
so. I had cautioned Sharon to set the
bar a little lower and be happy with a 80 to 90 percent satisfaction rating,
knowing that things would be taken care of differently when we were not there. We were pleasantly surprised that the lawn was
green, plants still alive and the pool full of water. The doors were locked and the furniture was
still is the same place as when we left it. All in all 90 percent would be a good number.
This trip would not have been successful
had a lot of other people not picked up the slack while we were gone. Sharon’s mom handled all the mail and paid the
bills, sometimes twice but they were paid. We still had all the essentials we needed
lights, air conditioning (a mere 97 degrees when we arrived home), water and
nothing had been repossessed. Scotty had
become an expert on proper pool care and Elizabeth would stop occasionally and
give us a run down on the condition of the house. Amber kept the house cleaner scheduled and
working as well as handling Scott’s business needs. Our lawn care guy showed up every week and
the lawn looked kept.
We drove our insurance gal crazy (Debbie
Hughes) with a variety of challenges with house issues, car accidents and a few
business concerns. She was a trooper and
we really appreciate all that she did for us.
We had several personal issues we had to
handle while on the road such as selling a building, investment challenges
after selling the building and personal law suits that took a cadre of
attorneys to figure out. But in the end,
it all worked out and we were able to complete our adventure of a life time or
two.
We really enjoyed doing the blog and
taking pictures to record our memories and share with our friends. We had
nearly 4,000 hits on the blog from many counties. Those who visited the blog faithfully, we
really enjoyed putting it together. Between
the 2 of us we took over 7,000 pictures. Not all of them were keepers but that’s a lot
of used up digits. Our plans are to make
a calendar and use the pictures to remind us of the great times and wonderful
things we saw. We will be sending them out to our friends and families.
There were times we noted our concerns
and displeasure with circumstances, world events and how things are viewed
and exploited. Thanks for listening. We come home with much more appreciation for
life and the real pursuit of happiness. We
are truly thankful for each other and the time that we had just being us. We
realize that it takes two parts to make to one. We have been truly blessed and appreciate what
we have achieved together and individually. You do not spend 113 days in a 33 ft RV with
someone you don’t really love.
We look forward to spending time with
our grandchildren. Emorie has grown up
so much while we were gone and Baby Relyea is due in November. We look forward to our role as grandparents
and will keep the family legacy alive and well. They are the future. We cannot truly insulate them from all that
lies ahead, but maybe we can help them avoid the pitfalls that will delay them
from achieving their goals and living their dreams.
We realize that the sunsets we will see
in the future will not outnumber the ones we have already seen, but the ones we
will see will be much more meaningful now that we know how to really enjoy
them.
In order to predict your future you must
first invent it!
Sometimes you just got to step out there
and do it. We did!
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