Most surprising aspect of the trip…? Being as excited to get home as we were to leave!! Don’t get me wrong, this was hands down the most amazing family adventure, journey, and trip of a lifetime on many levels, but we are so blessed to have a warm and cozy home and wonderful friends to come back to.

After driving almost 20hrs straight on our last day, we arrived to our driveway just before midnight and decided to just “driveway crash” our own driveway.  We also decided that if we wanted any sleep whatsoever we better not even unlock the doors to the house and take a peek inside as i’m sure this would have started a sleepless night! First thing i did notice was how much the garden and landscaping had grown!

We’ve been home 4 days and one would think we were mildly manic.  We’ve socialized 3 days in a row, hosting two of the evenings including a gaggle of kids in the house.  Unloaded and cleaned RV, cut all the weeds, bought a new vehicle, crafted and decorated for Halloween, caught up on house and laundry and started a 55gal fish tank.  I probably left a few things out, but you get the general idea!

The neighborhood kids and Savannah actually earned some moola by unloading the entire RV AND cleaning it!  All i had to do was put it away and go behind them with a final “Mom clean”, and they had fun!  The jeep that we towed that was generously given to me by my Mom survived the journey, but we all decided it was in our best interested to have the four door version of this model and a few years newer.  Especially in light that we would have had to replace the engine the same week we decided to trade her in (and steering linkage, and…)  Bitter sweet… but really excited about my new ride!!! Used the rocks we collected in Montana off the Flathead river to beautify the new aquarium and i’m literally barely sleeping this week because i’m so excited to be home and tinker around the house and yard!

So.. what does a trip of this nature costs..?  Well… not including food (that’s a given life expense so we don’t count that one.. 😉 Here goes….

Fuel- $3958 which is which is an average of 7.4 MPG for 8100 miles and approx 1100 gallons.  This figure is not so shocking in my jet head.. back in the day the Lear 25b i flew was 2000lbs the first hour which is 300 gallons just for 1 HOUR! (keeping in mind we were towing a vehicle and going over some very mountainous terrain most of the trip)!!  Most expensive pump was in Canada at $6.95 a gal (exchange rate was minimal) and the cheapest was in MS $2.71 (last refueling stop of the trip!)

Campground- $1,665 (mostly KOA because they had reliable internet for Savannah’s schooling).

Touristy things- $3800 (float planes, bear watching, white water rafting, trout fishing, zodiac back country…..)

Photos- How many photos do you think i took?  8900 off the big camera and 1200 off the phone………working on the family Christmas calendar!

We traveled with 2 dogs and 2 cats.  One being a kitten…. he pretty much destroyed the tops of the driving seats using them has rocket launchers to the top bunk..  I am pleased to not clean the kitty box morning and night and back to changing the entire box just once a week here at home! haha

Not lugging laundry for 3 active people and pounds of quarters..although Jim was the super duper laundry King!

Uhmmm intimacy.. yeah right. haha WOOHOOO WE ARE HOME with LOCKED DOORS and the house does NOT MOVE.  Had to throw that in….. 😉

Our RV is 31 feet long.. if you subtract the driving station that makes it about 25 feet long.  This is not a lot of space for 7 beating hearts and the entire 7th grade curriculum and clothing for ALL weather conditions.  But i am proud and honored that while we were in tight quarters we never felt cramped or in need of space.  This trip i wouldn’t say brought us closer together, because then that would be too close.. 😉 but the changes we witnessed in Savannah and her sheer joy of exploring, learning and deep curiosity on this journey was fascinating.  It’s neat to spend time with your kid while not having the  “normal” life distractions. Our biggest stress was not hitting a tree with the awning out (yeah, JIm did that.. 😉 haha) getting eaten by a bear, and navigating! haha I would not say this felt like vacation, but a rather more like a  “living vacation”.  We learned, felt, smelt, hiked, read, and explored in depth every single place we landed.  This was truly up there on the adventure scale.

My personal favorites were Colorado/Yellowstone/Tetons/and hands down Glacier National Park.  Favorite moments were river sup’ing 3 major rivers, one i took my daughter down (this is also up there on her list along with Whitewater rafting) but her very favorite was smore’s most nights over the campfire and building the campfires! Jim’s favorite was star gazing, campfires and the chilly evenings cooking on the cast iron.  We took the time to stop and visit Mom, Sarah, Brent & Esther, and Eric and Tehyla which added an even more “fun factor” to an already awesome trip!

We are home and i was certain i would  be melancholy…  on the contrary, I feel like a little kid at Christmas that just got back from the North Pole!

Would i do this trip over again? Nope. lol Well at least night in its entirety.  We crammed a lot in only 7 weeks time, but it certainly gave me some ideas of where i want to go back! 😉

I have to throw a HUGE shout out to Jason and Corrisa Ipock.   They took care of our home and maintained the Koi Fish pond.  Of course the pond developed a leak… and Jason had to spend an entire Sat fixing it… oooops.  😉 He also checked in on Jim’s parents and eased our minds in general while being gone.  Truly awesome folks and good people.

Well those were some quickly written random thoughts post trip.  I’m a little burnt out on writing my thoughts, but i’m pretty sure my family will enjoy this blog of our 2014 adventure for many years to come.

I will continue writing about our adventures as i’m sure some will be mundane, some funny and some off the wall.  Thank you for taking the time to read and share our journey.

Stay tuned for the next adventure!!

Cheers,

Heather, Jim, and Savannah