Finally - The Conclusion We arrived home late on Wed Nov 7 and parked the truck and trailer along the fence rather than try to back it in it's space in the dark. Turns out it stayed there for 5 days as I had managed to strain my knee and couldn't get back in the truck. I spent almost two weeks recovering from the knee strain before I could become reasonably mobile again. I wasn't up to doing a final tally so it has been a while but I now have approximate numbers on the trip. I say approximate because we didn't track cash expenditures and I don't have accurate accounting of what Deb put on her credit card but would guess less than $500.00. Total miles for the trip 13,412. Fuel cost $2384.70 Campgrounds $1290.12 Total charged to my CC $5403.11 Allowing an extra $1000 for Deb's CC and cash, total $6403.11 Total number of days on the road 63.5 Pleasure achieved during this trip PRICELESS!
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We sit in the campground in Kanab, Ut after a spectacular drive yesterday. To date we have covered 12,522.6 miles. We traveled through Co, Ut, Az and back into Ut on hwy's 160,491,county road G, 163, 98, and 89. Almost all of which was two lane with very light traffic. The scenery was just amazing. Here is a collection of photos in no particular sequence. This will be the last post until we get home later this week.
We spent Wed night in Kinsley, Ks and got an early start as we continued west on secondary highways. Two lane roads and few if any trucks. While there wasn't nearly as much color as earlier we discovered it wasn't completely gone. We want to get to Alamosa, Co so we will have a short drive into Durango. That of course means we are going to be headed into the mountains. The mountains in the distance all showed the recent snows, but the roads are clear and the sky in blue. Really a beautiful drive though different than what we had been looking at. All the snow appears to have landed on the eastern slopes of the mountains and as we went through the pass and started down the other side we noticed a significantly lesser amount on the ground. We ended the day at the Base Camp Campgrounds a newer campground that will be very nice when the trees mature. We arose Fri morning to temps in the teens. Fortunately we are not in a hurry as the day is only 150 miles to a...
We left Cherokee and made a beautiful drive through Smokey Mountain National Park on the way to my Brothers house in Bowling Green, Ky. I was truly amazed at the amount of traffic in the park but understand as the foliage peepers were out in force. Went to Smokey Bones BBQ for dinner, it was terrific. Friday was low key and laid back. Bob worked and we did a little shopping, then chilled as the weather was less than desirable. Sat we spent a good part of the day watching college football before we went out and got the GRAND tour of the Western Kentucky basketball inner sanctum. All I can say is WOW. These kids have it made. The facilities are unbelievable. massive "man-cave leather recliners in the film room. A weight room the pros would be happy to have. 24 hours access to 3 different cafeterias and the gym to shoot hoops or watch film. Once the tour was done, we went to the WKS home coming football game with tickets near mid field in theater style seats while the rest of the...
We pulled into the River Valley Campground just outside Cherokee, NC having just completed the 469 mile drive of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Total miles traveled to date 10,330. All I can say about the Parkway is what a fantastic scenic drive through forests, meadows, mountains, and vistas. Just about every turn in the road was a "WOW" view. We had overlooks that allowed us to view across 5 or 6 mountain ranges some 35-40 miles away. Under bright blue skies with a beautiful sun highlighting the colors we saw some of what we came for. We are a week early it appears due to earlier rains and the lack of the colder temps. We noticed a significant number of trees have already dropped their leaves. The Parkway has produced an app you can download that provides milepost information for the entire road. This was quite useful information as it also provided camp ground, shopping, points of interest, museums, and anything else you could ask for. Today is the final day of the exploratio...
The National Museum of the Marine Corp was amazing. Really well laid out with numerous docents to answer questions. Telling the history of the Corp from the late 1700's complete with authentic weapons and sabers. We spent 3 hours and could have easily spent 3 more. Mon we left and headed for Shenandoah NP. 105 miles with 75 turn outs. We stopped at maybe 50-60 of them. Such a pretty day with such inspiring vistas across many miles. A very nice map in the visitors center highlighted many of the points of interest. We can see the color is trying and it is certainly better here than the last couple days. Mostly a tree here, a tree there but it is easy to see what the blanket would look like if timed correctly. We had one stop with a sign detailing what the ridges were. The first mountain was 10 miles away and the furthermost ridge was the Appalachians and that was 35 miles away. The most colorful tree and a couple pictures to close. Tue is leg...