As Promised We Returned to Finish Our Journey

We left our great adventure in November 2013, but luck is on our side and we are returning to continue our journey come October 2014. We always planned to return we just didn't know exactly when?  Our personal situation has changed so we can head back early, am I excited? Bloody oath I am.

For the past year our trailer has been in storage at our friends - Chuck and Ceil's place in upstate New York. We have kept in touch with these guys on a regular basis and we know our trailer has been in good hands - thanks Chuck and Ceil. We spent countless hours preparing our trailer for storage over the winter months before we left, something completely new to us but from all reports we did a mighty good job - the only intruder was a small spider and her web at the front door. It is still hard for us Aussies to fathom a minus 20 c winter.

As the preparations began the the conversation went something along the lines of:

Me  - "this time will be different - we won't have to buy stuff for the trailer" Rose - "Ah hah  yep sure - I kow you will find something to buy".

She knows me too well.

Experience has shown us that the water is "hard" in quite a number of the USA states -  it dries the skin and makes you itch. Solution?  A water "softner".  Rose was right  - first gadget ordered. Then there were new water filters, a new shower head to compensate for the low pressure water and then the most exciting of all - a heated hose -  essential for cold weather camping.  This is basically a hose wrapped in wire which plugs into the power, and then a thermostat heats the hose when the temperature plummets. We aren't planning to camp in the cold this trip but at least we are now prepared!

So as my list of gadgets grows the UPS man and Ceil are becoming very well acquainted. We have also renewed our yearly National Federal park pass, Passport America membership - which gives us a 50% discount at some parks, $16.50 for full hookup is pretty impressive! Then there is our Good Sam roadside assist, camping world membership and the list goes on.

After travelling over 36,000 kilometres last trip the truck and 5th wheeler will need a little TLC before we hit the road again - new tires, oil change, new batteries, wheel bearings repacked, and re protecting the rubber roof. We anticipate that this will take a week or so and will require many a happy hour sitting on Chuck and Ceil's front verandah overlooking Lake Erie. Before venturing off completely we will do a 'shake down' trip to the Finger Lakes and hope Chuck and Ceil will be able to dust off their motorhome and join us.

We are slowly working through our list of 'things to do" and, given that we know this won't be our last "RnRUSAGapYear" adventure, what to take and what to buy to leave in our mobile holiday home is a big consideration.  Let's see if I can convince Rose to pack just the one suitcase this time!

Travel insurance, DFAT departure forms, money transfers, packing up house, farewell drinks and catch ups with all our wonderful families (and very special Grandbabies) will certainly keep us busy in the upcoming weeks.

Although the dollar has dropped (at the time of writing)  the price of gas in the US has reportedly dropped also and may be as low as $3 a gallon  (78 cents a litre).  This is great news as fuel is one of our big consumer items.

We don't have any definite plans for this trip  - more like a general direction -  we will however head south, away from the cold,  like the millions of other "snowbirders" from Canada and the northern states of the USA.  We will visit  Rose's brother and sister in law in southern Ohio, attempt to catch up with some wonderful people we met on our Alaskan cruise in their home state of Tennasee, onto Dallas to enjoy prize winning smoked ribs with Bobby and Libby, onto Corpus Christie to hopefully get to taste fresh roasted duck breast with Kathy and Jay and then follow the highway around the Gulf of Mexico towards Florida to catch up with David and Monty for a few drinks from their under sink liquor dispenser -  no rush - we are after all retired folk now!

These final weeks will be huge, busily trying to catch up with everyone before  we leave and making sure that that "to do list" has all been checked off.  We are sure we will get on the plane and just collapse.



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