Yes, after 9,502 miles, we are home and safely parked in our own driveway.
It was such an amazing trip and we saw so many things that it's just too hard to describe. I know I tried with the last 3 months worth of posts to reflect what we had done and saw and felt and enjoyed.
But there is also that special feeling once you are back home. It's the familiarity, the casual strolling by and touching things that bring you joy. The sounds and noises of your community. Knowing which neighbor is leaving early in the morning for work, knowing which dog is being let out one last time before bed, knowing the sounds of the FedEx truck pulling up in front of your house with some of the things that we just ordered--- now that we are back!!
One of the first things we had to do was to put up the portable panels to make up the rest of the fence around Nick's "potty yard".
We had taken them down to make it easier for the neighbor to mow with our zero turn rider. This way he didn't have to go along each edge of the fence nor come back with a weed whacker to clean up the edges. We had taken it down on our last day before leaving and stowed the panels away in the garage.
So we hauled them back out, one by one and laid them on the ground. They are actually display rack panels from a grocery store that closed down. They are powder coated steel and really hold up well. We just wire tie them together and attach one end to the white privacy fence to the south. Then on the north end we leave one panel movable on an angle. We can open it up to get the big lawn mower in, and leave it closed the rest of the time tight to the house. It is way too heavy for Nick to ever push his way open.
Soon we had it all together and into place. It didn't take us long, but it really was a miserable hot day with very high humidity. We were all pooped out just doing that one task.
Nick was so happy to get back out there and bounce his ball around. It really helps wear off his energy when he can race around back there. He drives the ball like a soccer ball and loves it if we bounce it in the air. He will get underneath it and pop it up in the air with his nose, just like a seal in the circus.
Incidentally, as soon as Nick got home he had to race around the house and total up all of his beloved toys. He needed to make sure they were all there and that not a single one disappeared. He nosed his way through both baskets, the one down in the She Shed, as well as the one up in the living room.
Yep, all accounted for.
We had to run a few errands and go pick up our mail from our daughter's house. While we were gone, he was so sadly laying on the ottoman and looking out at his big back yard. We can watch him on the cameras. You could tell he really missed his yard and wanted to be out there playing within the safety of the fence again. He enjoys this freedom after being in a harness and leash for 90 days straight.
All of our friendly little neighbors came by to say hello. The two fawns from last year are now almost full grown. They aren't very smart when it comes to hiding from danger. They are coming out in the middle of the day just to come and see what's going on in our yard.
Directly behind our home is a huge land preservation tract that is full of amazing animals who make their way into our yard. They are our friendly neighbors. Here was Mama and Daddy Turkey with a bunch of half grown babies coming to check out the apples underneath the tree.
They are more cautious, and scurry back over into the woods if we go out in the yard. They are very protective of their little babies. Even though they are halfway grown up already.
One of the best little discoveries was right directly behind our house. Before we left, I had quickly planted four tomato plants. I was hoping maybe they might take off over the summer, and we would have some tomatoes by now. I saw that the plants were totally packed in with weeds and I started to pull them.
Buttttt... I saw movement and I saw fluffs of bunny fur. Yep, Mama Bunny had decided to have a litter of sweet little babies right alongside of our basement window, safely tucked in behind our tomatoes!!
They are totally adorable, and they didn't seem to bother my tomato plants at all. I planned to not finish weeding until they were big enough to hop away on their own. Steve saw them one day all in a little line, he said he looked like they were getting ready to hop on a school bus! By the next day, they were all gone. Notice how great they are camouflaged?
The next day, we saw Mama Bunny over by the woods, and little lumps nearby making movements in the grass. So I think she moved them on to more secure surroundings, away from a barking dog, a noisy house, and a gardener who wanted to pull weeds around the tomatoes!
Two "not-so-friendly" neighbors moved in while we were gone. They happened to be Mr. and Mrs. Tree Frog. And where did they move into? Right into the dual-chambered exhaust vent pipe for our on demand water heater of our home!!!
The heater would not fire up and operate because something was blocking the vent pipe. It's a great preventative feature and the sensor would not allow the heater to ignite. Steve went to go look in the exhaust tube and found two little green tree frogs peering out at him!!
He tried to poke at them with a stick to get them to hop out. Nope. They retreated back further into the pipe. He tried poking in there with a longer wire with a hook on the end trying to coax their way out. Nope. They went further back in the pipe and around the corner of the tube down below into the wall of the basement. And it's a very very thick wall... about a foot and a half thick.
Well, we tried everything we could think of. I finally said let's get out the Shop-Vac and suck them out!!! We did just that. First we got one, heard it go thunk thunk thru yhe hose. We checked in the large barrel of the Shop-Vac and he was still alive. Steve carried him off into the grassy field next door. Then we went after the second one. This one was very clever and really hanging on tight down in there. We had to actually duct tape the wand of the Shop-Vac around the opening to create really good suction. But we got that second one out --- and it survived as well.
Sadly though, the water heater still would not fire up. So we kind of figured them froggies were living there for about 3 months. There's a lot of froggy doo-doo or whatever other excrement might be down there. So we had to bite the bullet and hire a plumbing technician familiar with on-demand tankless water heaters ($140 service call) to come over and see about dismantling the unit to get inside and clean it out. He did a great job, and we put a piece of hardware mesh now over the opening that won't inhibit the airflow. But it will prevent Mr. and Mrs. Tree Frog from crawlng back up there again.
We also had one more situation that we will be dealing with in the future. We knew there was a minor roof leak over the She Shed, only during very heavy rains. Well, it appears to have gotten worse. Steve had done a number of patch jobs on it but we are looking at now replacing a whole section of the roof. We are interviewing roofers now because our days of doing our own roof are long gone. We used to do our own roofs, and we had even done some repairs and maintenance on this one when we first moved here 6 years ago. But doing the entire half of the house is just going to be too much for us. We will see what we can manage to get done before the snow flies from three of the roofers we had contacted. So far only one has come back with an estimate. We will see.
I was so happy to get back to my She Shed. For you new blog readers who just joined us during our Alaska trip, you may not know that I am also a weaver of rugs, a spinner of wool, and a quilter with quite a bit of equipment for creating beautiful quilts and a long arm machine.
We converted an attached garage into my She Shed. We have a separate four stall garage for all of the guy stuff for Steve. This one single attached garage stall and mud room got to be mine, for all of my creative fiber stuff...
Actually, we spend more time down here in the She-Shed than we do up in our regular living room. We have a comfy couch that we curl up at night and watch TV. Or while I am sewing or weaving or whatever, Steve is sitting down here keeping me company. Of course, Nick is the central figure in the room. He takes his place wherever I am at, and he follows me around and doesn't let me out of his sight.
We were pretty excited to be back with the families. The grandkids came over to work on projects and give us a hand. One of the most happy places for all of us is to sit out on the front porch. They line up their little butts on the porch swing after they do a bunch of projects for us.
They managed to finagle a night or two of sleeping over, they missed us so much while we were gone. We have to get in as much sleepover time, baking time, and cuddling time before school starts soon. These are the two youngest, and they are the most energetic!
We find a lot of jobs for them to help with and give them a little bit of folding money when they are done. It's more of being responsible and being cooperative and helpful than actually doing a job to be paid. Often they try to refuse the money, but we insist that they take a little something for their efforts. Teaching them some responsibility.
These two silly nuts were watering all the flowers. But they took the time to also run a couple watering cans full of water through the rain chain hanging on the front porch. Oldest granddaughter Chelsea helped me make that a couple years ago. It's just little metal party favor buckets from the dollar store and a plastic chain from landscaping department in a hardware store. We drilled out holes and used little S-hooks and put it all together. Later that afternoon, it was pouring rain outside and they got to actually see it in action!
We swung by the Garden Spot nursery at the edge of town. Most of their flowers were gone for the season. After all, this is the end of August! I managed to score three beautiful baskets that were limping and drooping. He sold them to me dirt cheap, literally. I brought them home and they perked right up after getting some liberal doses of water. (He said they would).
We hung two on the pergola by the She Shed, and Steve fixed the solar lights that are draped around the roof.
I decided the front porch had taken a beating this summer in the hot sun. A lot of the paint had started flaking that I put on 6 years ago. No fear, it's not lead-based. Two of the granddaughters helped me scrape and peel off anything that was loose. That way I could get some fresh paint on and get it looking spiffy before fall when it's too cold to paint.
They were really great help, and loved peeling off anything that was loose. Then we gave them the shop vac and let them suck the chips all up so it wasn't all over the sidewalk and in the flower beds. That was almost as fun as doing the scraping.
As the girls were doing that, Clayton was busy driving the big lawn mower and helping Grandpa with the lawn. We do have two and a half acres on the edge of town, and it takes quite a while to get it all up to snuff.
Our neighbor did a great job taking care of it over the whole summer while we were gone. But I bet he's relieved to not have to go over and do that big yard every weekend. Our area of Wisconsin never had any drought type weather this summer, so the grass just grew and grew and grew. Sometimes it needed cutting twice a week he said.
Clayton loves driving the big zero turn rider, and he prides himself on making perfect lines back and forth. Years ago, when he first started, he left what he called "mohawks". Now he finishes the job with a flourish and helps clean up the machine when he is done.
We had also picked up a few scraggly little potted plants at the Garden Center. The girls helped put them in my window boxes that I set along the edge of the front porch. The girls said that our house looked so plain without any flowers this summer. I was so happy to still find some available at this time of year. I know they'll be dead by the middle of September from the frost. But it still is nice to have some color again.
We ran up to Walmart to replenish our prescriptions. And we managed to look at the scraggly last few things hanging out in their garden center. I found a whole display of beautiful fresh green ferns! I love love love ferns, especially three of them hanging from the hooks on our front porch.
These three were marked down on clearance at only $7 each and came home with me.
Things were looking more and more inviting, and more more back to normal. Being gone so long, things needed some attention when we got back. Coffee in the morning on the front porch is part of our routine.
I take out my spinning wheel for a little relaxation before the day begins. There wasn't any room to bring it along on our trip. It feels good to have the wool fleece in my fingers and the rhythmic treadling under my foot. Peaceful.
But then it's time to get back to work... Leaving this home for 3 months means we have to get caught up on some tasks.
We tackled the front flower beds around the front porch, and hung up the ferns. Everything is starting to feel like "home".
Oh. While traveling, I had picked up this beautiful slab of rock from a place called Whirlpool Canyon, just north of Liard River Hot Springs in British Columbia, Canada. I gave Clayton a hunk of cardboard and a can of clear acrylic spray. He gave the rock two coats on each side and we let it dry overnight.
It is now setting in an honored place on our mantle in the living room. It's right next to a beautiful twisted hunk of wood I found while camping last fall. I love natural art. Mother Nature is quite talented.
Who needs expensive souvenirs? I'm pretty happy with a hunk of wood or a slab of rock.
It was great to wake up again in our own home, with the sun streaming in across the yard and through the windows. Ahhhhhhhh
Stay tuned for my next blog posts, they will be detailing some of the repairs we are doing to the motorhome, as well as some upgrades and modifications that we decided to do after our trip was complete!
Here's the YouTube video that goes along with today's blog:
Thanks for following along... And rest assured, we will be doing some fall camping very soon, after the busy holiday weekend.
Now that we are home, it's time to do a final budget and expenses report. Also, we would like to do a recap of our trip with "Top Five Favorites" in various categories....
So far, we have done a budget blog post on the first 30 days:
Now it's time for the third 30 days and a wrap up of our total costs for the trip!
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FUEL, which is the one everybody asks about the most, came in well under budget.
For the last 30 days we spent $1,201 US currency. That is after the Canadian exchange rate has been applied through our credit card. We also spent $23 on a container of DEF fluid which is necessary for our Mercedes-Benz diesel engine.
Total fuel costs were $2,696. Our budget was $3,200. So we did really quite well. That is over a span of 9,500 miles. We averaged about 14.5 miles per gallon.
Most expensive was $6.07 a gallon in Jasper / Banff
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CAMPGROUNDS: For camping the last 30 days we spent $535. Monthly budget was $750 so we were below budget in our camping. We did have five nights of zero cost camping either at free campgrounds and at one Walmart this month.
Total cost for camping was $1,730. This included 18 free nights. Our budget for camping was $2,275 so we came in under budget.
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FOOD: Our grocery items only came to $443 this month. The budget is $500 per month. And we definitely came home with groceries that got brought back into the house.
Our complete cost of groceries was $1,156. That was well under our $1,500 budget for the entire trip. Granted, we left with some groceries from home. But just as well we are coming home with groceries to put back into the house.
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PROPANE: Our propane costs, which weren't really budgeted, were only $38 for this month. Of course we ran the furnace less often and really only used propane as needed for the stove, refrigerator, water heater, and sometimes to run our propane generator.
Our total propane costs were $285 for the 90 days.
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LAUNDRY: came in at $31 this month. Our budget was actually $120 per month. So we were well below on that.
Total laundry cost for $98 for the entire trip. We had budgeted $360 so we were well below on that.
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DUMP STATION: Dump station fees and water fill fees for this month were only $5. And that was after we got home at our own little city dump station a mile from our house.
The total we paid on the entire trip was $47 for dump station costs.
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RESTAURANTS:. I know this is a high item for many people but that's not the way we travel. We prefer to cook our own food. This month we only spent $26 at a restaurant. That was for my beloved Godfather's Pizza the day before we came home. The entire trip was only $147 for restaurants. That was including two Godfather's pizzas, one on the way out and one on the way back, and the rest was cinnamon rolls at various places that Steve wanted to try out. That was it for restaurant eating.
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GIFTS & SOUVENIRS: This month we spent $195 on gifts and souvenirs for ourselves and for family members. We needed to pick up a few things to say thank you for some people that made our trip easier, and some special things for the grandkids. In total we spent $460 in souvenirs. Part of that though was my beautiful Alaskan jacket and my rabbit fur mukluks.
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TOLLS / FERRIES: We had zero expense of those this month, and over the entire 90 days we spent $260. Our budget was $500. This included the ferry we took from Skagway to Haines, the toll for the Whittier tunnel, and the shuttles that we used going from McCarthy out to the Kennicott mine and back.
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MISCELLANEOUS: items little odds and ends we picked up. $27 this month and a total of $96 over the entire 90 days. These items range from repair clips for our recliner chairs to some bungee cords to some extra tape etc
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Our total financial expenditure for 90 days was $7,028.
That comes out to $2,342 per month
which averages out to $77.23 per day
We traveled a total of 9,500 to miles
and we had budgeted for 9,000 miles
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Now that we are home there are some minor repairs that we are taking care of ---
Our doorstep became erratic in operation. We had of course lubed it with dry silicone and did the good old hammer on the side of it to make it work again. It worked from time to time. But we knew on the inside the gear was stripping out. We've done this before on our last motorhome. We ordered a new one for $34 to replace. Easy peasy.
THERE WILL BE A YOUTUBE VIDEO COMING UP DETAILING THIS REPAIR/REPLACEMENT
Our water pump for the Coach water system had vibrated so much that the screws stripped out of the four holes that hold the impeller against the drive shaft. We did a temporary fix while on the road. We ordered a new one for $74 to replace it now that we are home.
THERE WILL BE A YOUTUBE VIDEO COMING UP DETAILING THIS REPAIR/REPLACEMENT
The d-ring cable pulls on our recliner loveseat had broken during the trip. We did a temporary fix, but we ordered the identical replacement pulls once we got home for $13 each. We also ordered an extra set to keep on hand in case these ever break.
THERE WILL BE A YOUTUBE VIDEO COMING UP DETAILING THIS REPAIR/REPLACEMENT
The propane valve with electronic solenoid was acting up during our trip. We did a somewhat temporary fix to make it operational. We ordered a new one for $200 to do a replacement in the future so it operates correctly every time and we are confident in it's performance.
THERE WILL BE A YOUTUBE VIDEO COMING UP DETAILING THIS REPAIR/REPLACEMENT
The door strut for our side entry door had weakened and was not adequately holding the door in an open position. For a mere $9 and free shipping we ordered a new one. It's just an easy "snap in place" procedure.
THERE WILL BE A YOUTUBE VIDEO COMING UP DETAILING THIS REPAIR/REPLACEMENT
We got a second rock chip on the way home, and opted to wait for Safelite to repair it until we got completely home, as it was not too big. They came right to our house and the cost is free with our American Family automobile policy. We gave the gentleman a $20 tip.
THERE WILL BE A YOUTUBE VIDEO COMING UP DETAILING THIS REPAIR/REPLACEMENT
Steve performed maintenance after we got home which included a complete oil change. The cost is $250 for the Mercedes Benz specific oil, and filter. He also replaced the fuel filter and the air filter and the cab filter as well. $42
He topped off the DEF with what we had on hand.
He replaced wiper blades to the cost of $13
This one is a biggie, we decided that we had quite a bit of wear on our tires, and we are not sure exactly when they had been put on by the previous owner. Before our next trip, we decided it was best to invest in all new tires all around. We purchased Michelin Agilis Crossroad 2, to the cost of $1,700.
THERE WILL BE A YOUTUBE VIDEO COMING UP DETAILING THIS REPAIR/REPLACEMENT
We decided to do a few upgrades, at this time, before our next big trip.
First and foremost, I invested in new wireless microphones! My original ones went haywire during the trip, and I was unable to find microphones that were compatible with my GoPro 8 and the specific media mod device.
At a cost of $119, it is going to make my future videos much more enjoyable, less road noise, and hopefully more professional looking and sounding.
The original mattress on the queen bed in our motorhome is a specific two-piece mattress that folds and unfolds when the slide pulls in or pulls out. It is now 10 years old. We decided to upgrade from Wilderness RV with a custom-made 10-in memory foam mattress. Cost of $788 + free shipping
THERE WILL BE A YOUTUBE VIDEO COMING UP DETAILING THIS REPAIR/REPLACEMENT
The seat covers on our driver and passenger seats are of an imitation vinyl that has started to flake and peel. After 91 days of use, they are looking worse for the wear. We ordered a custom set of new seat covers that will be in shortly. We will install them ourselves. Cost $343
THERE WILL BE A YOUTUBE VIDEO COMING UP DETAILING THIS REPAIR/REPLACEMENT
During our 91 day trip, we had our 28th wedding anniversary. We decided to splurge ourselves with a gift of new cooking pots and pans. We wanted the Carote brand, with removable handles that stack conveniently for RV use. We ordered them on a special prime sale from $300 down to $139. This is our anniversary gift to ourselves.
THERE WILL BE A YOUTUBE VIDEO COMING UP DETAILING THIS REPAIR/REPLACEMENT
Although our Blue Eddie (Bluetti AC200L) power station performed flawlessly as a supplemental source of power, we are considering upgrading the two wet cell Trojans over to LiFePo batteries in the future. Stay tuned for upcoming plans on that. I'm sure I will make a video of it.
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Now for the recap:
HIGHLIGHTS
I tried to pick out the top five highlights of our trip. That was pretty hard. So we picked out our top five, and a secondary top five, to give it a total of 10:
1. McCarthy & the Kennicott mine, so special I did 3 blog posts:
For me: my microphones not working!!! Now I have a new set, I hope future videos will be better.
For Steve: having to think ahead and plan out fuel stops in the remote Alaskan wilderness. Usually you just look at your gauge and decide to stop in the next town. Can't do that on the Alcan or the Cassier Highways. I was having to plan ahead and figure out necessary fuel-ups when available.
Would we do it again? Hmmmmmm --- maybe in a few years to get to the places that we missed this time around???
9,502 total miles traveled
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THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME!
Here is the you tube video that goes with today's blog:
As I mentioned in my last blog, leading up to this one, we were really tired after driving all the way to Teddy Roosevelt National Park. We had made some reservations at Patterson Lake campground in Dickinson, North Dakota. This is the second time we have ever made reservations on this entire trip.
Since we knew we didn't have to rush now to find a campsite, we took our time enjoying the rest of Teddy Roosevelt Park while we were in the comfort of the air conditioning in the motorhome. We did a lot of driving through the park, and only stepped out a few times in the high heat and humidity. It was wilting us!!
The campground at Patterson lake was just a bit out of Dickinson on the southwest side of town. I looked ahead on Google Maps and searched for Godfather's Pizza! If you are a long-time blog reader from the beginning of our trip, you will remember that I found a Godfather's Pizza in Minnesota, just before we crossed the border to Canada on our second day.
Now we were lucky enough to find one more in North Dakota before heading back to Wisconsin. There aren't any Godfathers in Wisconsin anymore. Sigh.
We ordered a Classic Combo in deep dish before going to the campground. We picked it up, and Steve actually grabbed the video camera and filmed a cute little bit of me bringing the pizza back to the motorhome. It is on the YouTube link at the end of this blog.
Can you almost smell it?
We each ate two pieces, and packaged up the remaining slices and put them into the freezer. They will make two more good lunches after we get home. We learned that putting leftover pizza in the air fryer at home really makes it taste great!
When we got settled into our campsite #2, (the same one we had last year), we turned up the air conditioning on full blast. It had been up to 93° today, and extremely humid. We definitely needed to run the air conditioning the moment we pulled in.
Each site has electric and water. There is also a dump station, dumpsters, and a nice swimming beach and picnic area. We didn't check out the bathrooms or the showers. But knowing this is such a nice park, I'm sure they are fine.
Something sweet that I noticed at this campground is that each site is separated by a row of thick lush lilac bushes. There's also some other plant mixed in with it that has little berries that attract the birds. Each clump of bushes is just twittering and warbling with bird songs. It's absolutely delightful, and what a great way to separate the sites from each other?
There are large cottonwood trees down the middle of the row of campsites that provide beautiful shade on a hot day.
Right now, the cottonwoods are releasing their little bits of fluff and seeds into the air. It's almost like little bits of snow along the edges of the drive, catching in the gravel. It reminds me of our large cottonwood in the backyard at home. I wonder if it is also releasing its fluffy seeds right now?
The only downfall to the campground is the railroad track that runs along the back side of the property. Where I am pointing with my finger down below. We only heard one train go through during the night. Either that, or we were sleeping so deeply we never heard any more?
It really never cooled down that much overnight, because the humidity was so high. We got up early and took our showers to cool off and have fresh dry skin for more comfort during the next leg of our journey.
The wildfire smoke from the North was increasing. We made our way quietly out of the campsite by 8:00 a.m. We didn't want to disturb anyone else. Although it looked somewhat clear to the East, we could see the haze in the North.
To keep out the smoke smell, we have to use the dash air conditioning on "inside circulation". It tends to freeze up after 15 to 20 minutes of operation. We have to turn it off to let it "thaw ". Literally, chunks of ice come spitting out of the vents at us as it thaws!!! Then we can start it up again and it works well for another 15 to 20 minutes. Repeat. We had recently had the control panel replaced to try to correct that very problem. There is a known service bulletin on it and I think it needs to be recalibrated by Mercedes-Benz when we get back home.
So in the meantime, we fired up the onboard propane generator. This allows us to also operate the rooftop air conditioner in the ceiling of the motorhome. This gives us more cool air throughout the coach, and helps with the lag times that we have the dash air thawing.
It also keeps the living room portion of the motorhome nice and cool for Nicholas. He looks pretty comfortable, doesn't he?
Yes, we are driving on the Interstate... as much as we don't want to. We do want to get some miles underneath these tires to get beyond the high heat, humidity and wildfire smoke.
We neared the community of New Salem. We could tell it was coming up in the distance because we could see Salem Sue!
Yep, that is exactly what you think it is. A big huge cow--- her name is Salem Sue. We had stopped to see her close up last time, so we really didn't need to do it again this time. But she is something that you should stop to see at least once in your life.
(Note the size of people in front of her)
The smoke was increasing as we entered into Minnesota. It was getting worse and worse as we were heading East. It was blowing down from the North and there really wasn't any way to escape it.
So we just kept on driving. And driving. And driving. There wasn't much else of anything we could do, other than find a campground and plug in and close all the windows and hide for the afternoon. And for sure, the next few days were all forecast to be just as bad, if not worse.
We decided to keep on going right across Minnesota. By 5:00 p.m. we were nearing Minneapolis and St Paul.
Oh goodness, RUSH HOUR! There were barrels on our side of the road but they were pushed aside and no construction was really taking place. Google Maps said entire huge sections were under construction, but they were wrong.
We flew through with only two small slowdowns, no stopping. We were on the 694 bypass around the North side of town. Mostly 65 mph all the way.
The oncoming traffic heading westbound at times were slowed down to a dead stop. Sometimes for miles and miles they were backed up. We are so thankful that was not our case in the Eastbound direction.
Before we knew it, we were out of the city and crossing the St Croix River. I cannot imagine all of those people out there in their sailboats enjoying the day with that heavy smoke in the air? We could barely see across the river to the shore on the other side. And it's not that big of a river...
There it was, that large brown familiar sign that is at all the major entrances to the state of Wisconsin!!!
We have pictures of ourselves as children lined up by those huge wooden signs every time we would go up to Michigan to visit family. On the way back, we would stop and get our picture taken as we headed back home to Wisconsin. Very fond memories of traveling and seeing that sign as we came "home".
We drove along to the first large town by the name of Hudson. We decided after 600 miles of crazy driving today that we would overnight it at the Walmart.
Nooooo no overnight parking allowed at the Hudson Walmart. Dangnabbit. We cooked up a little bit of supper, and debated about overnighting at a truck stop or trying the Home Depot which had a very small lot. Steve made the decision that we should just drive on towards Eau Claire. That town has a Walmart that overnight parking was allowed. It was 60 miles further, which meant another hour of driving. But it also meant we were another hour closer to home for the next day!
We made it to the Eau Claire Walmart and found a level spot to park. It was still very hot in the 80s. We did not want to run the generator all night. So we opened up the windows at bedtime and dealt with the humid and smokey air. It wasn't very comfortable and we didn't sleep very well. About 2:00 a.m. a crazy Zamboni-type street sweeper came along to sweep the parking lot! Then about 4:00 a.m. big tanker truck came to the gas station next door to fill their underground tanks. I could smell the heavy fuel odor wafting in through the open windows. By 5:00 a.m. we got up and took showers. It felt strange showering in a Walmart lot. Lol.
By 6:00 a.m. we decided to hit the road and head towards home!!!
It was only 200 miles further to get across the state to where we live along the Eastern shore of Lake Michigan.
As we got close, we had to be careful to not say the words "home" or "house" in front of Nicholas. It sends him crazy because he knows what those words mean.
We got to Oconto, and pulled first over to the dump station at our little Holtwood City Campground. We paid our $5 fee and dumped our tanks so everything was empty at the end of the trip. Steve gave things a good rinse so it took a little bit longer. Of course, we were anxious to get home and in the house and get comfortable and rest a bit.
Our central air conditioning is controlled through Wi-Fi, so we were able to have the house nice and cool as we rolled into the yard.
Little guy Nick was just beside himself to be back home. I quick turned off the alarms and the cameras so it didn't set things off coming through the door. He was rushing around and checking his toys and wanting to go out in his potty yard and just make sure everything was exactly the way he remembered it!
"C'mon, let's go potty in my OWN fenced in yard and not have to be on a leash!"
We put fresh water in his dish... and it was right where he expected it to be.
I kind of did the same thing too. I wandered around my She-Shed, touched my looms and my quilting machine, stroked my sewing machines and thought about the next quilt I'm going to work on.
After a rest, we called up the kids and grandkids and set up times to get together and hug and give them their souvenirs from Alaska.
After 9,502 fun and adventure-filled miles, it was great to be
HOME!!!
We will do a wrap up and budget of the entire 90 days in the next blog and on YouTube.
Here's the video that goes along with today's blog:
653 miles travel from Dickinson ND to Eau Claire, Wisconsin
then
205 miles traveled from Eau Claire Wisconsin to home!
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