Well, all good things must come to an end. We had 200 uneventful miles to drive today. This was the hurricane forecast we woke up to this morning. We think we made the right decision to get out of the Gulf area, especially not knowing where these hurricanes were going. It will be interesting to see how Biloxi fares from the hurricanes since we’ve spent some time there on those beautiful beaches.
We got some things packed up inside the bus to unload once we get home and left the campground at 9:30. The skies were mostly cloudy with small patches of blue, but no rain. It was 75 degrees with 95% humidity from the rain yesterday. It felt very steamy. I have not missed that humidity once in the last 3 months, but it’s time to get re-accustomed to it. I told Auggie that he would be home today in his own backyard and I think I actually saw a smile on his face. The drive in northern Florida around Ocala is always beautiful with rolling hills. There seemed to be a lot of semi trucks on the road for a Sunday and the traffic was heavy.
It stayed partly sunny for most of the drive, but it was pretty breezy. We made one last fuel stop near Wesley Chapel at a Flying J. Fuel is definitely more expensive in Florida. The skies darkened and we encountered some rain as we neared home. On the radar, Hurricane Marco had arrived off the coast of Florida so maybe that’s what we were experiencing. We will await the arrival of Hurricane Laura on Monday/Tuesday. We arrived in Palmetto around 1:30 and parked the bus in our community parking lot so we could unhook the Jeep and go home to get the AC going.
We drove the Jeep to our community RV section and picked out an RV lot to put the bus on for a day or two so we could unload it and clean it out. Then we brought the bus over and parked it on lot #20 temporarily.
We unloaded the refrigerator and a few of the bags I had packed up. Tomorrow we will go back and unload the rest. Then we will clean up the bus and it will be put into covered storage until our next camping trip. We came home and got the wash started. Auggie got to check out his yard and let the geckos know he was back. He enjoyed sitting on the top step to survey his territory. We put away everything we brought into the house and chilled a little after the drive. The temp was 94 and it was humid. We had a thunderstorm blow through just before dinner. It’s always a little emotional coming home when you realize you have to come back to reality. There’s a lot to do to open up the house, get the boats back in the water, empty the shed from all that was stored in it, and get back into a regular routine.
We drove 6,167 miles which doesn’t include any side trips that we took with the Jeep. Bob drove all of those miles except 70 of them (which I drove in the Jeep.) We traversed 9 states in 90 days. We had awesome weather and were not affected much by rain or high heat. We had one toilet malfunction, but nothing to impede our plans or enjoyment of anything. We felt safe and kept our distance during this COVID pandemic. Camping is a naturally social distancing activity and being self-contained with the bus still allowed us the freedom to do some traveling. We visited 8 national parks, 2 state parks, two gorges, 2 national monuments among other amazing sights. We viewed one meteor shower and a comet streak across the sky. We had many starry nights and “dark sky” views. We saw tons of wildlife and some unbelievable areas of the country with beauty beyond our imagination. This is our route mapped out from Palmetto to Colorado including all the places we visited in Colorado and neighboring Utah.
This is our route from our last stop in Alamosa, Colorado to Palmetto, FL
We are so blessed to be able to travel as we do in this amazing country of ours. I am sad that this wonderful adventure has come to an end. We hope that you enjoyed traveling along with us. We sure have lots of good memories (and thousands of pictures) to keep us going until our next adventure. Camping is good for the body, mind, and soul! Till then…happy trails!
I too was saddened to see your trip end–and my virtual trip. It was an unbelievable adventure, and I looked forward to it every single day for the past 3 months. You are doing all of the things we “older” Schaefer’s should have been doing years ago. Thank you both so very much for sharing and for the enjoyable experience I had! Love, Maryann
Thanks for coming along with us. I remember how much my mom and dad liked reading about our travels, knowing where we were, and that we were safe. I know that they were with us on this trip too.
We enjoyed your trip. How/when do you start planning your long trips? What resources do you use?
I am always reading magazines and seeing things on TV that give me ideas of places that I want to visit. Talking with people in the campgrounds and others who travel has also given me ideas. Trailer Life Magazine and Motorhome Magazine have an article each month on a different place to visit. I collect ideas and keep them in a folder. We want to go to the Pacific Northwest and I have been collecting articles on that area for over a year. Didn’t know when I was going to get there, but wanted to someday. The July issue of Trailer Life has one about Oregon and Idaho, so I saved it. We use an app called Park Advisor and 2 websites called Campground Reviews and RV Park Reviews when we begin to make our reservations for campgrounds. It gives you all the campgrounds in the area you are searching and a review of each. The reviews by fellow campers are very helpful. We have not gone wrong in using these sources.