Happy? To be home

Here are some trip stats. We were out for 96 days. During that time we put 7349 miles on the MP odometer. We pumped 852 gallons of gas for an average MPG of 8.6. and a total fuel cost of $2939. We drove into 11 states, visited 15 state parks and 6 national parks. We are home now. We can take long hot showers, we don't need to dash inside to keep the bugs at bay. There's no need to unhook the car in order to go somewhere. We have cell and WiFi. I can watch MSNBC without having to find open sky for the satellite dish, holding tank capacity is of no concern, and we know where we will be tomorrow. Kinda sad.

Last night out

Well, this epic will be ending tomorrow. It seems strange to be headed back to Tega Cay. It's been over 3 months. The MP has become our home in the truest sense. It is the place that we returned to. We will put her in storage for a few months. These pics were taken today.

A trip to the pool

Charleston KOA day 2

We had a good visit today with the Wights. Dinner was served at the MP.

Charleston KOA

We've been here a few times. It's a little strange that the Charleston KOA has the highest camping rates we have paid in the 3 months we have been on the road. We spent the afternoon with Lindsay, Jamie and the boys. We will be here for 4 nights. Here are some pics of our visit.

Laura S. Walker State Park Ga.

This Laura Walker must have been extra special. So far we know of a park, a road, a lake and a golf course, named after her. All I can say is--Wow! We are near Waycross, Ga. It rained on us for 4 of the 7 hours it took to drive here. It's raining now....7pm. It's strange, the West is dry and the East is wet. Actually, the East is waterlogged. This is our campsite. We haven't had to disconnect the car in several days. This campground is nearly vacant. Last night's rain was torrential so most people said "to hell with this" and left this morning. The lady who checked us in, told us several people left in the middle of the night and stayed in hotels, returning this morning to break camp. It's raining in Biblical fashion at the moment. 40 more days of this and we'll be living out of our kayaks.

Meager State Park Alabama

We are still driving on I-10. This place is near Mobile. The park is on Mobile bay. It has been raining for several hours. This pic was taken after sunset. I walked out into the inclement weather to get it. The bay and the interstate is visible in the distance. Tomorrow should be Georgia.

Village Creek State Park Tx.

We left S.A. this morning and got on I 10 East. We prefer staying in public parks vs commercial parks because the ambience is so much better. The spaces are more private and its quiet. There are generally some trails and quite a lot of property. I had a good 'tension relieving' bike ride after we got set up. Driving through Houston is somewhat stressful. This park is pretty close to Beaumont. The nearest town is Lumberton. We drove through the town but I must have blinked. We are headed toward Charleston for a visit with Lindsay & Jamie. That will take 3 days. 

Stella reacts to seeing Poppi without a shirt on.

Stella is upset she can only have one s'more

Devils Sink Hole State Natural Area

This is kinda serendipitous. We met a lady who was into bats. Ya, I know, that's a little different, but who am I to judge? She had reserved a tour for herself and her daughter to visit "The Devils Sinkhole" to watch the bats emerge. This cave is in Rock Springs. You'll have to look pretty hard to find it but I think It's on some maps. It was about a 45 minute drive from where we were camped. Seth & Courtney had left with the twins and had allowed us to keep Aubrey for the night. We did the tour and watched some bats fly out of the cave. The problem was the sun went down and bats are hard to see in the dark. We didn't get back to the MP until 10:30. I got pulled over by a cop 'cause my right tail light was out. While he was writing the warning ticket it started working. Is that funny? I'm not sure. Here are some pics--no bats are visible.

Tubing the S. Llano

The big deal in this park is the river that flows through it. You can rent tubes for $5, that's something even I can afford. Here are some tube pics.

South Llano River State Park

We're in Junction TX. Seth, Courtney and the girls will be here tomorrow for a day of  swimming in the Llano river (which strangely has water). I'll try to add some pics later. We had to drive 10 miles to get any data. Damn Verizon.

Back in Texas

We left Moab and drove to Albuquerque. We left Albuquerque and drove to the Guadalupe Mts NP. The RV campground is a paved parking lot. The park has had 5 inches of rain recently. Everything is super green. The grass is covering everything and its 2 feet tall. On top of that its supposed to get into the 60s tonight. This is August in West Texas. We've got no Cell anything in the campground so I'm going to ride my bike to the visitors center and see what I can do with this post. This first pic is me in a group of blooming purple sage. The next pic is the RV campground.

Birthday suit bike ride

The 'suit' part was a typo. Jenny wanted me to do something for me for my birthday. I had my eye on a 9 mile bike trail in Dead Horse Point State Park so we drove up there and I rode it. That's going to be it for our Moab adventures. Tonight we are going to our favorite restaurant and then we're out-a-here. We're probably going to head for Texas for a short visit. I stopped on my ride to take this pic.

5AM getup

We looked around for a bike tour that wasn't going to be too challenging yet would be fun. We signed up for a tour that was 18 miles, almost all of it, downhill. It included breakfast served at 9000 feet. The only drawback was it left Moab at 6. I haven't been awakened by an alarm in so long it took awhile to figure out how to set one. The trip was well done. We had 2 guides, one led us on a bike and the other followed in the van. We were on a dirt road. We started in aspen and pine and ended up in the desert. There were no serious mishaps although Jenny has been groaning when she stands up the last few hours.

Yaking the Colorado

Today we did what the local outfitters call "the daily". It's a 14 mile stretch of the Colorado River  that has some excitement and takes about 4 hours. We hired a shuttle service to take us and our boats, to the start. On the way up river we dropped our car at the finish. The exciting parts were 6 named rapids that all the outfitters run in big rubber boats. We were in the only hard sided boats on the river. After a couple of these rapids had my sphincter cramping I decided to deploy the sponsons. (inflatable air bladders) That helped some, but my heart rate was still elevated as we made our way down river. Tomorrow is an 18 mile (mostly downhill) bike tour. We meet up at 6AM. Breakfast is included.

Epic ride

This morning, Jenny dropped me off at a mountain biking trailhead that accesses 30 miles of trails. I bought a guide book yesterday trying to figure out where I might ride with a low probability of death. This area seemed reasonably unknarly. It was a spectacular ride. One 3 mile section was on slickrock. The trail was indicated by a brown line painted on the rock. A 3 mile long painted line. It was very cool. The trails were all well maintained, well marked and well designed. This is BLM (that's the Gubment, in S. Carolina speak) land. Our taxpayer dollars at work. Tomorrow we do a kakak paddle on the Colorado followed the next day with a guided 18 mile bike ride. Here are a couple of pics. Note the brown line.

Dead Horse Point State Park

We did some errands today. We worked hard to support Moab's economy. Our last activity was a visit to the above named state park. The source of the name involves the unfortunate death of several horses. This topic is something not discussed openly in the Williams family. We are primarily a horse family. I'm not. But I'm out numbered by the Williams females. The park is situated 2000 feet above some entrenched meanders of the Colorado river. The views were fantastic but we are becoming somewhat numbed by fantastic views. Here are some pics.