Epic RV Trip -- Mission Accomplished!

**SAT 8/3 Homeward Bound!
95 degrees in Vegas at 8am and we're out of here!

Mission accomplished!  We finished the map in Colorado on the way home.  I can't believe what we've done!  It's amazing! 

I hope we've given the kids a taste for travel, adventure, and discovering new places.  There's a lot of places we missed or only skimmed the surface on.  We leave the door open to more opportunity to explore our world near or far.  I hope they remember that people might live in different places or speak different languages, or have different jobs, but we all want and deserve free opportunity to pursue our happiness.

We had some favorite places, but our most exciting moments were with family.  Some favorite places are Nashville, St. Louis Arch, Civil Rights Museum, Canada, New York, and New Orleans.  We loved seeing our aunts and uncles and cousins and wish we had time to see even more extended family along the way.   We won't miss the mosquito bites.

I think our biggest surprise was camping with my sister and her family.  It was good quality time for all of us.  The biggest disappointment is probably that Chris wishes he could have mentally turned off work and school for at least part of the trip.

I am so proud of myself for keeping up the blog and glad Chris posted on Facebook at every stop.  The girls were not required to journal this trip so I hope they enjoy reading this and reliving the memories.

We are HOME!
Now we drive up our street and I can't help but think I love this neighborhood, and of all the places we've been, I am very happy where we are.  We walked inside and I had almost forgotten what our house looks like.  I hear the kids say, “It’s our house again!"  “I feel like I’m in a new house” and running down the hall, “I want to go see my room!"  I think we are all happy to have survived and be back home safely, and happy to have a little more elbow room between us!

Just for fun summary by the numbers:
98 days / 14 weeks / just over 3 months
12,304 miles in the MH 3,568 miles driven in the Jeep
Most miles in one day: 635 (-->ND), Average miles per drive day: 279 
46 Gas stops, 2175 gallons of gas
5.75 Ave mpg
Lowest & Highest U.S. gas prices outside of Cali: $2.20 (SC) $3.18 (Yuma, AZ)
               *Highest counting Canada $3.76 (Montreal, converted from liters and exchange rate)
               *CA price at home: $3.39
"who knows how many" hours on the road
41 campgrounds & 3 driveways
57 times played "On the Road Again"
2 dirt roads
tolls: I don't want to know
1 trip to the doctor
tears: "who can count that high"
beers consumed: same answer
mosquito bites: too many
2 motion sickness vomit
31 loads of laundry, 3 lost socks
39+ days of homeschool school kids; 13 weeks of school Chris
2 1/2 novels read aloud together
~40 postcards sent
11 Capitols -- KS TN AR MS AL GA NH ND SD CO *DC
33 State & National Parks / Monuments / Forests
39 New States 7 Provinces +5 returning = 44 states traversed
5534 photos
40 blog posts, and proud I was able to keep it up
3 overtired kids
10 repairs: 1 mechanical, 9 others
      (fridge, lock, sewer, corner piece, porch light, trim pieces, windshield, fender caulk, radio fascia)
13 things on the list to fix/work on

Our jacks aren't broken but I wish we could individually operate them (the console only lets you adjust direction) to get a better and more consistent level; the kids keep mentioning the wind in the mornings and they can feel the MH move.

The motorhome is already scheduled for maintenance next week.