The season started late for us because we even didn't arrive at our summer destination until July 15. But we are here at Fern Ridge Shores now and, oh my goodness, it really is SUMMER now. Last week, there was a heat wave of record proportions here in the normally mild Willamette Valley. The temperature reached 103 on a couple of days, almost unheard of in this part of the country. We are lucky to be here though. The Park is partly shaded, the Lake is inviting and cool (and our AC works). Hot or not, it's great to be here.
It was a good roadtrip. We saw some beautiful country between Florida and Oregon. We drove 5400 trailer miles in the two and a half months (not counting miles put on the truck exploring while we were unhooked). We took the Northern route and so almost all of the time we were on roads that were new to us.
We stayed for at least one night in fourteen different states, four of them new to us. We added a National Park to our list of those we've visited. And we explored new parts of some states where we'd spent time on earlier trips. Click on the "states where we've stayed" page on the right for a list of the RV Parks where we stayed on this trip.
We had some great visits with family this time, something that we have never been able to do on previous roadtrips (until we got back to Colorado and then Oregon). This time, we were able to spend some time with two sets of our grown grandchildren. We parked the house for a while in Charleston, South Carolina where we had a lovely visit with our grand-daughter and grandson-in-law who had just moved there. Then, later in the trip, in a nice bit of serendipity, we crossed paths with our traveling grandson and his wife in Illinois. And we even were able to drop in on a sister and brother-in-law whom we hadn't seen in a while in Bemidji, Minnesota.
We spent three wonderful weeks near our son and daughter-in-law when we got back to Colorado (which is actually more like a home-away-from-home break during our roadtrips, because it is so familiar to us by now). This picture is Golden Pond near their house and a view of some of the many snow-capped Mountains that you can see from Longmont, where they live.
We really like having our own house when we visit people. We feel like we're neighbors for the time we're there, instead of having to impose on our hosts as houseguests.
Here are a few bits and pieces that didn't make it into the posts we did as we traveled. (If you haven't already seen those, just scroll down through the posts below -- back through to the first of May -- to read the major highlights.)
Most of the time on our overnight stops we were able to find RV Parks where the spaces were long enough so that we didn't have to unhook. It's a pain to have to go through that if you don't really intend to go anywhere in the truck that night.
When I opened the curtains one morning, I found myself looking at a Teton and Freightliner exactly like our own, kind of like I was seeing a reflection. These people had come in late the night before and pulled in right next to us. We're all looking for those nice long pullthrough spaces!
The other thing we like in an overnight spot is when there is something interesting to look at when we take a walk after we're parked and hooked up. It doesn't have to be anything amazing -- the local wildlife will do beautifully.
For a little while, we thought our trip might be jinxed because just an hour or so into our trip -- the very first day, somewhere near Ocala Florida -- we were stopped in a traffic tie-up for almost three hours. We never did find out why. But people just got out of their cars, sat down in lawn chairs, played frisbee, walked their dogs, and visited. We even saw someone unload a horse from its trailer and walk it along the roadside. Nobody seemed too concerned about the delay, they just sort of turned it into a roadside party. So it turned out to be kind of interesting after all.
Road construction projects were going on everywhere, so we saw a view kind of like this one just about every day we were on the road. In Minnesota, they say there are two seasons: Winter and Road construction. We never did have any more long delays anywhere, but sometimes it felt like we were running an obstacle course with the trailer.
We love traveling and learning -- that's why we live in an RV. Here are a few extra pictures of things we learned. (click on 'em).
A tortoise patrols at a roadside rest area near Savannah
Inside Teddy Roosevelt's N.D. cabin. It was made of railroad planks. (At TR National Park in North Dakota).
Below: Pioneer women weren't always happy with their lot (with good reason). (Somewhere between Fruita CO and Beaver Utah)
There are some great things about small towns! Donna and Sherm, friends of ours in Springfield, grew up in tiny Richardton, North Dakota. He went to high school at this Benedictine Abbey. It is a beautiful building -- and the Abbot of it remembered them very well when we mentioned their name!
We always enjoy our roadtrips, but after a few months it's great to be settled down again. We're especially happy to be here at Fern Ridge Shores, where we can visit with family and old friends. It's going to be a great summer!
Comments