Days Forty one, Forty two and Forty three

We're well on our way home now. We left Chicago on Monday and drove into Indiana to spend the night in Clarksville,  just outside Louisville, Kentucky.  After all of the comfortable weather we've had the heat has finally caught up with us and it's in the 90's. From Kentucky we drove to Chattanooga, Tennessee. We had a lovely meal in the downtown area and took a walk along the Chattanooga River. Tomorrow we head to Atlanta, Georgia for a one night stay and then back to Bluffton from there.

We've had a great time over the last 44 days. We visited 17 states, two Canadian Provinces and 9 national parks and drove a total of 9,400 miles. We've traversed many national forests, driven on scads of scenic highways, seen countless snow capped mountains, numerous rushing waterfalls, dozens of rivers, creeks and lakes, too many cornfields to mention, a gazillion cows of all colors, herds of bison, several deer, tons of elk, a few goats and sheep, four black bears, two wolves, two eagles, and one grizzly bear. We regret that we never saw a moose.

As to the weather we were truly blessed. For most of the trip we had very comfortable temperatures and sunshine. We never used an umbrella once. We did suffer through one hailstorm while driving from Colorado to Wyoming, cicadas in Missouri, mosquito bites in the Tetons, a violent overnight thunderstorm in Chicago with 70 mile per hour winds and snow flurries in Oregon. Our van is covered with bugs collected from various states, but the van performed superbly and even got an oil change in Washington. The highest price we ever paid for gas was $4.09 a gallon in Washington. The prices were higher in Canada, we paid $1.29 for a liter.

We dined in many fabulous restaurants and a few clunkers. Stayed in some great accommodations and a few very rustic ones. We had a little trouble adjusting to the confines of hotel rooms versus our much larger home. We bumped into each other more than once. In fact Don body-checked me so hard one time that the Philadelphia Fliers gave him a call.

We really enjoyed our two weeks with my brother Bill and sister-in-law Janice. It may be a while before we take another trip like this again but we would certainly recommend that everyone do this at least once in their lifetime. There are a number of  places that we would have liked to have spent more time in and would love to visit again in the future. But we're happy to be headed back to our house and friends at Hampton Hall.