Monrovia, MD: Home At Last -- Another Trip In The Record Books

At last! After an incredible trip we are back in Maryland, our starting point almost 9 months ago. Actually we were gone for 226 days, 8 hours, 23 minutes and 36 seconds. Ok, Ok, I'm guessing on the minutes and second however the number of days and hours are correct.

We arrived back in Maryland last Wednesday and what a great feeling to see our children after all this time.

What an incredible trip! Mary Lynn and I went through 21 states including Alaska, 2 Canadian Providences and 1 Canadian Territory. Along the way we visited countless communities, monuments and parks, including more National Parks than I can count (unless I take my shoes & socks off). We saw numerous mountain ranges, some of which have so many mountains and are in such remote areas that many of the mountains have not been named.

Of course who could forget our flight around Denali National Park and landing on Ruth Glacier, which is located on the flanks of the largest mountain in North America, Mt McKinley.

We put 10,000 miles on the RV, all the while towing the CR-V. Plus, once we parked the RV, we put another 2500 miles on the CR-V exploring the local area/communities. That's roughly 1430 gallons of diesel. Using an average of $3/gallon (we paid much more than that in Canada) that works out to ~$4300 in diesel fuel, just for the RV. Just don't tell my financial advisor...

As you may know we tried to sell our house in Maryland two years ago just as the market was disintegrating. We took the home off the market after two months. We decided to try out living in our RV full time to see if we liked it as much as we thought we would.

If you have followed much of the blog you know we love traveling in the RV. Therefore, despite the incredible decline in housing prices we are putting our house back on the market.

So far we have been immersed in getting the house ready to go on the market. Life the last few days has been a blur of arranging landscaping, house staging, cleaning, movers, car repairs, insurance agents, car rentals, etc.

Hopefully we'll be able to list the house within two weeks.

Know anyone who wants a beautiful house about 45 minutes outside of Washington, DC at the bargain price of $625K? If so, have them contact me. It's a lot less than it was worth two years ago but we no longer need the house.

Meanwhile Mary Lynn and I are cleaning, packing, and planning a few short RV trips. We will mostly be in Maryland until the house sells or until after the holidays. In any case, it sure is good to be back with so many family and friends.

See Ya!

Davenport, Iowa: Escape From Iowa

You know our dilemma. This was our third day stuck in Davenport, Iowa, as we waited to get the wiring on our RV repaired and the AC fixed. Sunday we arrived at the Freightliner dealer only to be told they couldn't get to us that afternoon however, they said, if we made an appointment for Monday at 8 am the dealer would be working on resolving the issues by 9 or 10 at the latest.

Monday morning we arrived at the designated hour, filled out the paperwork, and were told the next available mechanic would be working on our RV. Excited? yes we were. Only the next available mechanic didn't get started until 1:30 pm, and he turned out to be the least experienced guy working.

He got the lights working (more on that in a minute) and then started trouble shooting the AC problem. Around 4 pm he was hopelessly lost and they pulled him off, telling us another 'more knowledgeable' mechanic was just finishing a job and would be with us shortly, certainly within the hour.

Well, by now you can see where this is going. The 'new' mechanic didn't start working on our RV until well after dinner, however he did finally determine the problem was a bad dryer. Didn't even know I had a dryer for the AC but I do and it was no good.

They could have one shipped normally and it would arrive in a week or so or I could have it overnighted for $35. They told me I would have to pay the shipping because Freightliner warranty did not cover expedited shipping. It was now around 9 pm and, having been stuck for two days, I said I would gladly pay shipping.

They spent two hours putting everything back together and at 11 pm, Mary Lynn and I pulled the RV out of the garage and onto the parking lot where we hatched our escape plan. No way were we going to spend another night. We got everything else ready to roll so that once the dryer was installed we could boogie out of town and head for the Illinois border, which was only a few short miles away....

Long story short, even though the part arrived by 11 am, we had to wait for a mechanic until 1 pm, and we discovered the lights were still not working correctly.

Finally, finally, the work was completed around 4 pm. As I was hooking the car to the RV the service manager comes out and says 'BY the way, the AC repair is not covered by warranty'. If I had been sitting in a chair I would have fallen out of said chair.

He goes on to tell me Freightliner will pay $550 and I'll have to pay the other $550. I was flabbergasted (love that word if not the feeling) and immediately called Freightliner Custom Chassis, spoke to a young man who said he would take care of it, and he did. Within 10 minutes the dealer was saying the AC WAS covered by warranty.

I quickly paid for the wiring and RAN to my RV, yelling all the way for MLA to start up the diesel. I climbed up the stairs, sat in the drivers seat, put her in gear, released the emergency brake and high tailed in off the dealer's lot. We didn't slow down yet alone stop until we had crossed the mighty Mississippi river and found ourselves in Illinois.

Yep, we had finally escaped the Iowa vortex.

That was at 415 pm; it's now around 2:30 am. We're parked at a Walmart in Ohio. We went all the way through both Illinois and Indiana just to make sure we didn't get pulled back into the Iowa force field.

I'll add pictures later; if you are nice maybe I'll show you my new dryer...

See Ya!

Davenport, Iowa: Out Like A Lamb.....

Ever heard the saying "In like a lion; out like a lamb"?

I'm beginning to think that saying is an apt metaphor for our Alaska trip.

I mean, this trip started off with a bang and just got stronger over time. IN April we started in Arizona heading quickly into the various national parks of Utah. Lake Mead, Zion, Bryce, Moab, etc. etc.

Each experience building on the previous experience. Wow!

Then we headed up into Montana, where the scenery is beautiful. Then into Canada's British Columbia, where we spent time in Canada's Banff and Jasper national parks. again, simply spectacular scenery. A quick trip along the Yellowhead Highway (which is infested with bears, moose, deer, etc) to Prince Rupert followed by the trip north through Alaska's Inside Passage.

OMG! The Inside Passage has to be one of the most beautiful and peaceful places on earth.

And so it went. Alaska unfolding before us and sharing it's beauty and grandeur at every turn.

After two and a half months however, Mary Lynn and I were experiencing sensory overload. Too much beautiful and expansive wilderness. Mountain range after mountain range, all bejeweled with cascading streams and rivers. At some point you realize you have reached your limit when you know longer grab the camera at every turn for yet another spectacular vista or amazing wildlife.

And ever since our tow bar broke in Minnesota it seems as if we are moving in slow motion. First we had to wait for a replacement tow bar to be sent to us and then we had to wait another two days for MLA to start feeling better.

We left on Saturday only to discover that the tow lights are not working correctly. I spent about four hours trouble shooting the problem, tracing the problem to a couple of blown fuses and thought I had it solved. Well, it's still blowing fuses so I need to take it into a Freightliner dealer and have them find and fix whatever is blowing the fuse.

So we spent another day in Davenport, Iowa, waiting for the Freightliner dealer to open on Monday. Why Davenport? Well, that's as far as we were able to get on Saturday before not having brake lights/turn signals on the tow car went from an intermittent problem to totally not working. Or flashing. Or whatever it is that you want the lights to do...

In any case, we now have an appointment at 8 am tomorrow and hopefully the dealer should have us on the road by mid-day. At that time I hope to put a lot of miles under us so we can (finally) get back to Maryland. We expected to be there last Thursday and now it's probably closer to this Thursday.

Normally a delay of a few days is no problem for MLA and I however at this point MLA is pretty homesick and wants to see our kids, as do I. So once this problem is fixed we'll put in a few more hours driving than our normal 4-5 hours at the wheel.

See Ya!

Faribault, Minnesota: Headed Back To Maryland (Soon)

We left Missoula, Montana on Saturday. We were originally leaving on Friday however our 'overnight' mail from the post office turned into 'over two nights mail". For some reason the post office couldn't get our package there in the allotted time.

It finally arrived Saturday at noon and we hit the road. We drove until dark and spent the night in a Walmart. In the year and half we have been on the road in an RV we

have stayed in a Walmart parking lot four times. Some people do it more frequently however we only use it when we need a couple of hours of sleep before taking off early the next day.

And that's exactly what we did; we were on the road by 8 am the next morning. We drove across the rest of Montana, all of North Dakota and into

Minnesota. All of it beautiful country. And the amount of open space in Montana and North Dakota is incredible.

Minnesota is called the land of 10,000 lakes and sure seems to be true -- lakes everywhere. Some big, some small, but lots of beautiful, fish filled lakes.

We were making pretty good time

until Mary Lynn saw a sign advertising "The Mall of America", the largest mall in the US. Of course we had to stop, if only for a few hours.

So we stayed in St Cloud on Sunday night and drove to the Mall of America Monday morning. The mall is really something, complete with an amusement park, underwater aquarium, and of course tons of stores. It's said that if you spent only 10 minutes in each store it would take you 86 hours to visit all of them. Over 4.5 miles of storefronts. Wow.

We left the mall, headed south, intending to drive until dark. And then it happened.

Just as we were going through a highway construction zone, I heard a loud bang, looked in the rear view camera and saw our tow car swinging wildly from side to side. Obviously not good.

Turns out our tow bar broke. And at the worst possible time although to be accurate, there is no 'good time' for your tow bar to break. And thank goodness for safety cables. That was all that kept the tow vehicle from taking off on its own. All in all, a real mess.

That said, nobody was hurt or hit by our toad. We finally got stopped and surveyed the damage. The car hit the motorcycle carrier several times and has a lot of damage on the hood and both sides of the hood.

The tow bar company is sending a replacement unit so we are camped beside a small lake is a peaceful little campground waiting for it to arrive.

It shook both of us up however we quickly realized just how fortunate we were in that no one else was involved and no one was hurt. All the other 'things' can be repaired.

It's Mary Lynn's birthday on Friday and I had hoped to get her back to Maryland in time to celebrate with the kids. That probably won't happen however we should be back in Maryland in the next week or so.

Can't wait to get back to Maryland and enjoy some steamed crabs!

See Ya!

Missoula, Montana: Pinball Wizard

Well, after over two months travelling in and around Alaska, Mary Lynn and I made a mad dash through the Yukon, Alberta, and British Columbia, crossing over the border back into the USA on Sunday night. We dropped down through Canada so quickly it reminded me of a pinball machine where the ball is fired from side to side, bouncing off of everything it touches even faster than before, until it zips between the flippers and is gone.

That's about what Canada looked like to us, especially the area around Banff and Jasper,

Turns out it was another long Canadian holiday and all of the RV parks wee completely full. We ended up at a rest stop one night, arriving about 4 am after searching for an open campsite and then finally driving through the night. At least Canada has large rest stops with plenty of parking for cars, trucks, and RV's.

Canada is a beautiful country, especially in Alberta and British Columbia. we did not spend nearly enough time there -- there is so much more to explore. Lots of small campgrounds along lakes and streams. Canadians flock to out of doors venues so be prepared for crowds on big weekend.

Oh yeah, we did stop for dinner in a small town where the "Deathfest" was being hosted. When we asked what the heck was Deathfest we were told it was a 24 hour marathon on a mountain course. The objective (in addition to surviving) is to run up and down the mountain as many times as you can in twenty four hours. We saw quite a few runners and many did indeed look like they were embracing the 'death' part of the festival.

We stayed in Missoula long enough to have the RV's oil and air filter changed. The conditions in Alaska and Canada were incredibly dusty and the roads were rough in spots so having the RV serviced seemed prudent. They also (supposedly) fixed the air conditioning. I should say they

charged me for fixing the AC. We later found out it was still not working correctly. (When I called the Missoula, Montana dealer from Minnesota they said if I came back they would take a look at it! -- gee, thanks).

See Ya!