Oct 07

Home! Actually Got Here 2300 Friday Night But Was Too Tired …

to even post Saturday. Busy too getting settled back in and cleaning up the RV.
So, according to my trip-o-meter, we traveled a whopping 5988.5 miles with an average of 9.3 mpg (Ugh!) so we had to have used approximately 643 gallons of gas at $3.10/gallon (averaged: $2.27 in NM & AR to $3.50 back in the good ol’ Northwest) for almost $2k then add camping fees ($12 in a city park in New Mexico(?) to $71 at a KOA in I don’t remember anymore). Luckily we got to park in family driveways when visiting them. That saved a pretty penny.
Beautiful as ever from Midway, Ut through Moab, Ut down Arizona to I-40. Trip out along I-40 was okay.
Trip back along I-90 was windy as fuck starting about mid-South Dakota! I only came back that way to try to miss some of the wind we usually get heading West on I-70 or I-80. At one point we were on a mountain in western South Dakota at 4700 feet, going down hill, gas pedal pressed to the floor, doing only 57 mph. Coming across eastern Washington was the worst until about Ellensburg.
I will never make this trip west bound pulling the RV again.
Still, except for SWMBO’s cat, it was a pretty good trip. Left Sept 1st and got back Oct 4th. Saw a lot of this beautiful country and a lot of shitty drivers that don’t understand the ‘speed up and merge, fucker’ part of driving. I don’t know how many ass hats I saw pull onto the freeway at 10-15 mph under the speed limit only to have them get up to speed AFTER I had to slow down for them. (I NEED a bigger bumper and permission …)
But don’t get me started.
Biggest disappointment for me was I saw only 1 storm this trip.
On the bright side: we did it all and returned safe.
Otherwise, my grass is about 8 inches high and my garden is overgrown. However, the grapes that were left were sweet and rendered down to a quart of grape juice. Added some sugar to the pulp that was left over and it’s in the freezer and will be going in the freeze dryer to see how good a snack that’ll make. Experiment.
Glad to be home.
Now for those 3700 e-mails that Thunderbird collected for me …
Aug 31

Rachael 1977-2024

Got an e-mail from my ex-, whom I haven’t heard from in the last 25 years or so, letting me know that my 2nd daughter died yesterday of an infection. And that’s all the details I’ve gotten.

And, since I haven’t had any contact with her either for almost as long, the most I can work up is “Sorry for your loss.” My condolences to her husband and daughter.

I regret that we didn’t have a better relationship; but it wasn’t my decision. I knew that she homesteaded up in Canada but that was about it.

Goodbye, Rachael. I can’t miss you anymore than I have.