Sunday, November 20 thru Tuesday, November 22

HOME SWEET HOME & THE END OF TRIP 9.

It’s been cold here & sunny. The day after we got home, we did get a few brief snow flurries, but they didn’t stay on the ground. The snow that was forecast for beginning Thanksgiving night and lasting a couple of days has changed completely to no snow and rain for 2 days instead. Oh well.

The girls were stunned at how much room they had to run around inside. They spent the entire first night running up and down the hallway & and up and down the stairs. Lots of meowing and yelling; we wore ear plugs when we went to bed. By Tuesday, they had adjusted completely and were happy, each of them settling into favorite spots in the house to nap.

We were pleased with how well the house did while we were gone. Very little evidence of mice, just a few droppings here and there, compared to the army that got into our pantry and cupboards during a previous winter absence. (Rob had gone through after the last mishap and sealed every tiny hole or crevice he could find before we left, AND we had recently completed lots of renovations to the house. It all made a big difference.)

Speaking of those renovations, we had been gone so much before leaving on this trip and hadn’t really had much chance to enjoy the changes we’d made. We are SO happy with the way the house looks and feels now. We’d spent most of the first COVID year cleaning and downsizing, donating to Goodwill. We had collected so much STUFF. To come back to a cleaned-up home with lots of new things like doors, porches, siding, couches and chairs, and a wonderful soft new bed – it was like moving into a brand new house. It’s a real pleasure to be here and without the clutter. Once you spend an amount of time in small quarters, you really realize that you don’t need so much of what you’ve accumulated. It’s a good thing.

We’ve been very busy since we got home and are still not unpacked fully. Doing loads and loads of laundry, washing everything we took with us. Ordering supplies that we’d almost run out of. The appointments begin next week – we’ve been gone over a year and everything you normally do throughout a year’s time is now overdue. Including cat’s vet visits, dentists, medical check-ups, tests and follow-ups, vehicle inspections, eye doctors, and here comes Christmas. Etc. We need to put some money and time into the Honda tow car and fix it up to hopefully be able to withstand more years of our travels. The Honda needs some work that’s just regular maintenance. Rob is also going to beef up the suspension and tires to make the Honda stronger for our off-road driving. It’s been a long time. We’ll be catching up with friends. See, it’s not all drudgery!

As far as the stats for Trip 9, it’s amazing when we look back on it all:

This was by far the longest journey we’ve taken in the RV.

We began our trip on October 11, 2021 and ended it on November 19, 2022.

13 months, 1 week, and 1 day.

Beginning mileage on the RV was 48,780 miles.

Ending mileage upon arriving home was 61,986 miles.

We drove 13,206 miles.

We drove through and/or camped in 24 states – NY, PA, DE, MD, WV, OH, IN, IL, MO, AR, OK, TX, NM, AZ, CA, OR, WA, MT, WY, SD, NE, KS, TN, NJ; and drove through and camped in 3 Canadian provinces – British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.

We visited friends and family in MD, KY, CA, and OR.

As we did on past trips to Eastern Canada, we LOVED Western Canada! The scenery was outrageous. The people were so nice. The wildlife is unbelievable. We hope to see more of Canada (the province of Quebec comes to mind) and repeat the Canadian provinces we’ve already been to. When trying to determine what our favorite things were from this trip, we really could not narrow it down – everything was favorite. We are very grateful.

We’re discontinuing the blog posts until our next trip – number 10 – hard to believe. Thank you, every one of you, for reading and commenting on the blog. While this began as an online journal for ourselves to read in old age, it’s also been an excellent way to keep in touch. We look forward to traveling with you all in tow, so to speak, several months from now. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and please take good care of yourselves and each other. Love, Rob & Vicki and Gracie, Luna, Java, & Pixie.