On the road again!!!

We had a good final trip home. We left Nashville, TN early Saturday morning and arrived at our friends’ George and Linda on Monday evening. We camped at their place the first night of our trip and thought it would be appropriate to spend the last couple of nights with them. We got home in Sun City on Wednesday the 15th in the late afternoon. We had to get used to the heat as the last couple of days had been pretty cold again. It again reminded us that we don’t want to move back to any place where it gets cold. We had a great trip; rekindled some old friendships and made some new friends. We also learned a thing or two about where to camp and where not to camp (especially in the week-ends). Just goes to show that you always learn a thing or two even if you have made several long or short trips camping out. Just to give you a little more information about our trip we are putting in some statistics and things we might have not put in before, but that were of interest to us. We drove a total of 7937 miles or, for our European friends, 12.699,2 km. We travelled through 13 states — Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. We went over the Continental Divide and the 100th Meridian twice, crossed over the Mississippi river three times, crossed the North Platte river, the Missouri river, the Ohio river, the Arkansas river, the Tennessee river, the Canadian river, and of course some smaller rivers we didn’t keep track of. We saw an old hand painted sign saying “Howdy Doody for President. It is the right choice!” Who remembers Howdy Doody? We really enjoyed travelling on the smaller highways and going through all the little towns. Unfortunately we didn’t get to do that once we left Waterloo, IA. We left Sun City, AZ on July 12 and went via Payson, Snowflake, Holbrook to Gallup, NM. Then north via Shiprock, CO and Cortez to Mesa Verde, CO. Then to Durango, Pagosa Springs, Alamosa, Walsenburg, Pueblo, Colorado Springs to Aurora (a suburb of Denver), CO. From there we went through Fort Collins, CO via Cheyenne, WY and Kimball, NE to just outside Gehring, NE (near Scottsbluff). We took a little side trip to Gillette, WY to see the coal mines. From Gehring, NE we drove via Ogallala, NE and North Platte, NE to Kearney, NE. From there we went via Grand Island, NE and Columbus, NE and Fremont, NE and Blair,NE to Elk Horn, IA. From Elk Horn, IA we went to Pella and then on to the Amana Colonies, IA. From Amana Colonies, IA we went to Cedar Rapids, IA and Dubuque, IA to Madison, WI. Then we went up to Oshkosh, WI. We made several trips to Appleton, one trip to Wautoma and our big trip to West Allis (a suburb of Milwaukee). From Oshkosh, WI we went via Green Bay, WI to Suring, WI and from there we went to Boulder Junction, WI via Rhinelander, WI. From Boulder Junction, WI we went to Bloomer, WI. (enjoying the smaller highways). From Bloomer, WI we went via Onalaska, WI and La Crosse, WI. to Prairie du Chien, WI. From there we went via McGregor, IA to Spillville, IA and Festina, IA to West Union and Fairbank, IA and on to Raymond, IA which is a suburb of Waterloo, IA. 
From Waterloo, IA we went via Cedar Rapids, IA, Iowa City, IA and Bettendorf, IA to Peoria, IL and Springfield, IL to St Louis, MO. From there we went via Paducah, KY to Nashville, TN. Then via Memphis, TN, Little Rock, AR, Fort Smith, AR. Then via Oklahoma City, OK, Amarillo, TX, to Tucumcari, NM. Then via Albuquerque, NM and Gallup, NM and Holbrook, AZ to outside Concho, AZ. From Concho, AZ to Snowflake, AZ , and Payson, AZ we got back to Sun City, AZ on October 15 as scheduled. That was our trip this year; who knows where we will go next year? We are talking about different routes but won’t decide until it is closer to the time of departure. Hope you enjoyed reading about our trip.