August 18, 2011 - Back at Home

It was nice spending over six weeks on vacation, most of which was in cool weather.  When we arrived at home, it was 107 degrees.  I reckon we came home a little too early but we are glad to be back.

On the way home, just a little ways into Kansas, we were stopped by a state trooper and given a ticket for being 3 feet over length.  He made us unhook the Jeep and, since Toni doesn't drive a standard shift, we had to leave it at a truck stop.  We went on with the camper and camped within 19 miles of the Kansas/Oklahoma border.  The next day we drove 500 miles round trip back to the Jeep to tow it back to our camper.

When we were ready to pull out, we hooked the Jeep back onto the fifth wheel and took back roads out of Kansas hoping we wouldn't run into another state trooper.  We had no more problems with the law going through Oklahoma or Texas.  The lenght restriction in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico is 65 feet and we measure 67 feet.  Funny thing though, Colorado allows 70 feet!

After we got home, we traded the silver Jeep off for one that has an automatic transmission so if this happens again, Toni can drive the Jeep home or out of the state.  The new one also has a hardtop, which does away with most of the wind noise.

Toni took this picture at the truck stop where we retrieved the Jeep.  We think we want to buy a bumper like this for our pickup!

This is the way we looked when we left on our trip.  Notice the nice straight front bumper!

This is the way we came back.  Also, the bed of the pickup is full of things like the Dana 44 axle I bought.

Our poor pickup.  I hope to get started on the repairs very soon now that we are home.  The Dodge dealer in New Mexico said we are going to have to have a new front axle housing as well.

We drove almost 7,500 miles and went through New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and into Alaska and Canada.

One of the main reasons we spent as much time as we have on this blog of our 2011 vacation was due to our plan to convert it to a little book form.  We hope that day our grandchildren will have a written and picture account of this  six week period of time in our lives and learn something about us.

The time spent on our long trip brought back many memories that Mom and I have of all the times we spent with our kids on vacations, weekends, and even days after school.  It brought back memories of boy scout camps, hunting trips, bicycle rides, alpine slides, backpacking trips, tent camping, and generally just having fun with our family.

There are, basically, only two things in life that are truly important and that I fervently hope for our boys and their families:

1.  That they love Lord God above all else.
2.  That they spend tons of time with their wives and children and have FUN.

Odd as it may sound, this is the first time in our 45 years of marriage when Toni and I have spent 24-7 with each other for six weeks in one continuous period of time.  I have to admit that there were a few times when we got a little testy with one another (mainly me) but in the end, we connected in ways that goes back to when we were first married and is new unto itself.  It was a good trip.