Today Karen and I did something we thought would never happen. We left our driveway on Meloy for the last time probably to never return. Our home of 33 years sold in only one day with multiple offers and we are in the final stages just waithig for the appraisal report then closing.

We are on a journey to Yellowstone National Park for a rally of our Cardinal RV Club who have become like family to us. We will be with them for five days then head back to our new home at Friendship Acres in Atwater, Ohio where we will stay to finish up some projects and doctor appointments. We then depart for the winter to Ocala Florida and return home to Ohio the first part of April.

I will try and publish something daily as we make this journey and share it with our friends and family.

Today we drove 439 miles to Utica, IL and had a very good travel day, now to relax from all the work and stress leading up to today.

Day 57 August 24, End of Trail

This was another fantastic journey as we traveled across the USA for 57 days and 7,500 miles. As you have seen and read we stopped at several interesting places that we had not been to before. The highlight of this trip was the time we spent in the Redwood National and State Parks in northern California. We were there 30 years ago for one day and this time we had the opportunity to really explore the area. Our trek across Oregon was another highlight with unique landscape and great state roads to travel on. It was very remote with small towns and very friendly people. Each of the sites we wanted to visit were long distances from where we camped and well worth the visit. We attended four Cardinal RV Club rallies along the way and thoroughly enjoyed the friendship, sharing of each other’s travels and of course the pot luck dinners. Our last stop and Rally was Frankenmuth, MI, we have been there a few other time and enjoy the small German town and shopping especially Bronners Christmas Store which is billed as the largest Christmas store in the world.  On this journey we were blessed with safe travels good weather and wonderful memories. We are also happy to be home with our friends, church and family and on August 26, 2015 Karen and I will celebrate our 50^th anniversary. 

Day 47

Our rally ended today and what a great week. Included was a breakfast every day and dinners Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. There were vendors selling items at great prices and daily drawings at several of the booths. Karen and I won a rear camera system for the 5^th wheel valued at $500.00 and a 30’ 50 amp power cord valued at $150.00. We were to provide a list of five items we would like to have done on our 5^th wheel, these were done at no cost to the owner.  We had some welding of frame supports, new suspension springs, entrance grab bar, entrance light fixture and a replacement spring door handle, the estimated savings to us was about $800.00. In addition to that we had a week of meeting new people and enjoying wonderful fellowship with our friends. 

Day 36 & 37

Yesterday we traveled a long 424 miles to Utica, IL.

No travel today, just slept in a bit and relaxed. We had the truck oil changed. That’s it for today and tomorrow we travel about 180 miles to Goshen, IN to a Forest River international rally. We have some work that needs done on the camper and during the rally Forest River brings in hundreds of technicians to do free repairs on their products. There are about 750 campers registered. We will be there until Wed Aug 18 then move to Frankenmuth, MI for another rally. We should be home late afternoon on Aug 24.

Day 35

Well we are now 295 miles closer to home and after a good travel day we had this sunset to complete another day.

Day 34

Drive, drive, drive 319 miles to Ogallala, NE. Nice day but temps got to 97. We set up then headed for diesel and of course Walmart. We will be driving two straight days to Greenwood, NE then Utica, IL for two days and visit Starved Rock State Park.

Day 33

We had another nice travel day as we headed north out of Utah to Rawlins, WY. We traveled on HWY 191 for about 100 miles on a fairly good road and beautiful country from desert to green forest to the high planes of Wyoming. Along the way we went through the Flaming Gorge area and across the dam. The first wildlife we have seen were Prong Horn Sheep in the meadow then at the campground two deer were hanging out under a shade tree next to the playground and on the Put-Put course. They did not mind us being here.