Some final thoughts

After almost 8 weeks away and over 8,000 miles we start to see some things in a new light. Of course we missed our family and friends, although with e-mail (such as it was) and cell phones it was easy to keep in touch.

We missed our house. But we did amazingly well in our 225 sq. ft. "small home" after living for years in our 2700 sq. ft. "big home." You learn about lots of things you can live very well without.

We learned that there are many beautiful places in our great country and that we live in one of the most beautiful.

We learned just how precious a resource water is. And it will become more so. It will be the "oil" of the 21st century. While Yardley had heavy rains and floods and Wyoming was green and beautiful, we went through areas that would give anything for just some of our water. Santa Fe has been in a drought for 9 years. The Navajo reservation in Arizona was magnificently beautiful - but no water at all. In Colorado the price of hay has skyrocketed because of a water shortage. But it is a different kind of shortage. Some farms and ranches have water rights where adjacent ones don't. So only some can grow hay. This has to do with historical riparian rights and can get ugly.

Did you know that Los Angeles is a desert and survives only because of water piped in from the Colrado River? Because of riparian rights a rancher in Colorado can have cattle dying of thirst while Los Angeles is taking water out of a river near his ranch.

In our RV we learned to take a "navy shower." You turn on the water, wet yourself down, and turn the water off. Then you lather up. Finally you turn the water back on for a rinse. When you have a 6 gallon water heater and a small holding tank these things matter.

We learned to roll with the punches: a broken air conditioner, a dead battery, a brake warning light, the "Bates Motel" campground. It takes a sort of a "glass half-full" approach. Instead of complaining about the negatives you cherish the new experiences.

Would we do it again? You bet! Two changes I would make. First, I would be less tied to a schedule. There were any number of places we would have stopped if we didn't have to be someplace. Second, we needed some time apart. Even though Judy and I worked together for over 20 years, this was different. In the 54 days we were gone we were apart for a total of maybe 6-8 hours. That is an impossible situation for any two people.

So what's next? It's a pretty sure bet we will do another smaller trip this summer - maybe 7-10 days to Great Smokey Mountain National Park in Tennessee or Acadia National Park in Maine. Next summer? We'll see, but we sure would like to get back to Alaska.

I said before we left that one of two things would probably happen when we got back - either we would say we had had it and sell the RV or we would jump in with both feet and trade up. It looks like I was wrong. I think we are going to keep this unit. It worked fine for us. A newer, bigger unit would be nice, but this one has one feature that none of the others has: it's paid for!

Thanks to all of you who followed the blog and sent comments. We really enjoyed hearing from you. We also had fun writing the blog. Now comes the fun - editing the 2,000+ pictures. But don't worry. We won't make you watch all of them!