Winding down..

Well, folks!  It's about all over except the parking, unloading and taking the coach back to storage, until next time!

Today, we came from Robinsville MS, down good ole Highway 72, and ended up in Huntsville Alabama.  Tonight we are camping at the U. S. Space and Rocket Center Campground!  So far, it's a very quiet campground, since the sun went down!  During the afternoon, there were several groups from next door at the Space & Rocket Center Space Camp, who came, as a group, into a big open field near the entrance to the campground.  They had constructed rockets, and the staff was helping each one fire their rocket.  We were outside for a while, getting hooked up, and before we went to the grocery store, it was not out of the ordinary to hear laughter and squeals of happiness, as the swoosh of their rockets climbed into the air!!  We remembered the days in Cub Scouting when our Cubs made rockets and we fired them off at Boy Scout Camp!  It was such fun, and these youngsters were having a 'real' blast!!  (no pun intended)

We got settled in, did some grocery shopping to get enough for breakfast in the morning, and then just relaxed.  We had a nice dinner, and are now watching an episode of NCIS that we must have missed, somewhere along the line!!  

In the morning, after breakfast and our morning routine, we will head for the old home place!!

Folks, it's been fun!!  We have so been so blessed, and we have so much to be grateful for.  God has been so good to us.  Much better than we ever deserved!!

After tonight, we will have been on the road a total of 36 days. 

Not counting the trip from Huntsville to Chattanooga (which we won't need to re-fuel for), we have traveled a total of 5507.7 miles.  

Speaking of re-fueling, we have used a total of 739.544 gallons of fuel.   That's a lot of gallons, but I wouldn't change anything for the world!  We have had the time of our lives!!

Gas prices weren't as 'out of sight' as we had planned on.  They were all pretty consistent with the prices around home.  We had budgeted a certain amount for fuel, and we are way under budget on this!!!  Another thing to be grateful for.  

We've stayed in 23 campgrounds, in various states, here and there!  This does not include our 3 glorious days on the garage parking lot in Yellowstone!

Our coach did wonderfully.  Ignition troubles could happen anywhere, while trying to leave storage, or on the way to a campground.  Ours just happened to occur in Yellowstone, where lots of things are restricted about coming onto Government property, as well as only one garage to do service!!  We were thankful that they were there and were so helpful to us during our stay.  We did purchase a full set of tires, that's 6, while we were gone!  And we had to replace the battery in our tow vehicle, although, we are now thinking that we may be having alternator or starter problems on it.  We will have it checked out when we get home!

The 5 that started out with us, were not without trouble, themselves.  Both James & Wallace lost awnings on this trip.  James had air conditioner problems, and an electrical surge at one campground caused them to lose their TV.  Tom had trailer hitch problems, but ended up with a 'sweet deal' when he got it replaced with a brand new one, for his fifth wheel, at only a fraction of the cost of a new one at home!  Several had problems with their black tanks.  No trip is ever without problems here and there.  We're just grateful that the 5 made it home, safe and sound, and that we are this close to our home.  There was a lot more road construction that we went through than accidents on the interstates.  That's another thing to be grateful for, as well.  None of us had tire blowouts, nor accidents that could have caused injury!

We are grateful and blessed that during the time that just the 2 of us have been traveling, alone, that no major health issue has occurred.  It could happen so quickly.  We have some very good friends that are pretty close to our age.  They never travel without at least one other couple with them, just in case of illness.  We would have really been 'in a hum', so to speak, if something like that had happened.  Yet, one more thing to be grateful for. 

Maybe tomorrow night, after we get home, I'll post a lot of photo's from the entire trip, hopefully there won't be too many duplicates.  We've seen so much, and, believe you me, none of the photo's are even close to the real thing!  They just don't do justice to all we've seen.

For now, I guess I've rattled on enough, and I think I will finish watching the movie that Butch is watching, then we'll get a good nights sleep.  

The rest of 2012 has already been planned:   Cherokee Trail October camp out in Woodville Alabama, our family vacation with Nita & Joey to Edisto Beach SC, the Good Sam Rally at the Daytona Speedway, the Cherokee Trail November camp out in Hiwassee Georgia, a trip to Branson Missouri, a week in Nashville TN, and ending up the year with our annual week in the Smokey Mountains!   At the end of 2012, I will have been retired ONE year!!  Amazing how the time flies by, but I have enjoyed every minute of it, and I sure couldn't have been on an awesome trip like this, if I was still working!  I've done my time, not interested in that 4 letter word any more!!

Thank you, my dear friends, for traveling with us.  Just wish everyone could have gone with us for real!!

Goodnight and much love, always.