Processing

I returned to Seymour at 7:30 pm last night, stopped at Don's Grocery for chicken to placate one grouchy cat, and came home.  The chicken always does the trick. By 9:00 pm, Rascal was purring on my lap.

For the past few days, Gary had been in Dixon, Illinois helping his aunt by clearing out weeds and doing some trimming.  When he learned I was going to be home, he got in his van and by midnight, he was home, too.  We are now one happy family again.

Now comes the processing part.  I have to think about the trip for a while and come to some conclusions. One that I can announce herewith is that the United States is an awfully big country with a diverse geography and population,.  I mostly avoided political discussions though I did ask about local matters.  Too much water was on everyone's mind in most of the northwestern states.  It is just the opposite in the south.  Local people were friendly and helpful.

I have begun to do the paperwork to see how I fared.   I traveled 8,290.  I had figured on around 6,000 but there were so many out of the way campgrounds and things I simply wanted to see.  Add to that getting lost which I do with great regularity.   I thought I would spend around a thousand dollars on gas.  In fact it was $1,222.   It would have been more except that I expected gas to rise to $4 a gallon and instead it dropped.  I also thought I would get around eighteen miles to the gallon, but the Sable surprised me with an average of 24 miles to the gallon.   

I still have some finances to figure out but I suspect I came out ahead.  Keep in mind that I can write the costs off on my taxes since this was a business trip.  In addition, I now begin the process of lining up travelogue talks this winter.  I may still write some articles as well.   

I need to do some healing.  I twisted my right knee at the Arches National Park in Moab, Utah and it is still bothering me.  I went back to the aquatic center this afternoon and started the process.  The good news is that the right knee now matches the left knee and though I am hobbling a bit, I no longer am limping.  It should all balance out. 

There are stories I never got around to telling and probably will in the next few weeks as they come to mind. 

I said to Gary this probably was my last big trip.  He said he doubted it.  I guess he's right.

I am now thinking about spring and Arkansas.  There's still five states I want to visit:  Hawaii, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Delaware and South Carolina.  There's an interesting summer reading program coming up for next year.....