With Son #2 home from overseas and us in Dubois, it seemed natural (at least by our family standards) to “swing by” upstate New York “on our way” back home. That added 1200 miles to our journey, but we’ve gone a lot further than that for lesser reasons, so off we go …
And, as it turned out, Son #1 and his family were able to join us (only a 700-mile round trip for them — again, nothing by our family standards), so it turned into a nice gathering.
And, with that, it was time to start the drive back home. All in, this summer’s trip was 7150 miles of towing over the course of 8 weeks (with an extra 3800 miles on the truck over that period); stops in 17 different states and 2 provinces; explorations of 13 national, provincial, and state parks; and roughly 40 picnics at locations ranging from national parks to state welcome centers.
We were stymied by two wildfire outbreaks and one hellacious wind storm (crosswinds at 50-55 mph) that actually closed I-80 to all “high profile vehicles” due to “extreme blow-over risk.”
And one other noteworthy metric. Most of our “camping” spots are either in national or state parks or commercial campgrounds. But sometimes, the exigencies of travel have us stopping in, well, what one might call ad hoc alternatives.
This was our sixth (or seventh, I’ve lost count) circumnavigation of large chunks of this beautiful country. Have we seen it all and we can stop traveling? Not a chance…