6,442.9 MILES...52.9 MPG

26 days

18 states: Nevada, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California

One Amazing Country!!!

So we considered Ourselves ready to go:

and our Car ready to go, and we started out as

 70 SOMETHINGS DOING SOME THINGS

and many of you came along for the ride...one helluva ride it's been:

We had so many aww moments:

and then the differences between the states...interesting:

Being away from  California we'd never seen so many Fire Works for sale… they are not legal here and so having them for sale in so many stores is different and the idea that you go to the local gas station to buy them...EVERYWHERE is truly different.

we saw lots of nothing

we saw lots of somethings

we felt moved

1. we felt blessed

1. some days we were exhausted

sometimes we felt energized (even at 2 am)

We celebrated and honored those we love:

We enjoyed checking out the crazy titles on books along the way:

 We drank lots of coffee and since I brake for Espresso we saw some adorable coffee shops

 We were aware of signs we don't normally see

We spoke to the experts

 We got to be silly

 We took  selfies and found out we aren't very good at it! Short arms!

We relaxed along the way

 Felt patriotic

We Felt Love

We counted on our Prius...small but mighty

 We packed and repacked that prius

 

 and a few times we unloaded and then reloaded everything: 

Fortunately, we managed to stay ahead of bad weather

and mostly,

We laughed along the way…

How many guys does it take to make this decision?

The many many sides to New Orleans:

We saw lots and lots of people

 We spoke to people

We had picnics

We saw animals up close

We saw oddities

  

We were the oddities

We ate and ate and ate

and drank

We found out that if you build it they will come…

  

Some of the best  hints we had along the way:  hints to keep our road trip working so well...

        my seat cushion

Marty cleaned our windows every morning before we would take off, we had microfiber cloths and windex

         The winning cocktail of:

       5 hr. energy drink, 

       Red Bull and 

       Espresso Double Shots

          Lots and lots of music:

       and our books on tape

lots of coins for tolls

We made multiple stops:

 fewer for gas and more for potty potty potty

       some were more urgent than others.

but we got to Texas...

and although we weren't originally going to leave so quickly, we made our long kiss good bye with lots of promises...

We approached Phoenix and although it's true we may not have been the only Big Deal happening in the town:

The town of Phoenix welcomed Metallica with this highway sign

and Neil Diamond with this one…

We are sorry to have cut Santa Fe, New Mexico out of the trip, fortunate for everything else we got to do and see and  since our last intended stop WAS to be with Shirlee, the stars aligned and she was in Phoenix while we were.. therefore our sister, Shirlee, became our last "Ball of String" detour and we were able to have breakfast together.

6,442.9 miles driven, 52.9 mpg 

We were greeted when we came home by a Kucher group hug 

and by the very best welcoming committee

As we sum up the last few days, the last few weeks and the crazy crazy time we’ve had…we just want to say, although, it is not how we hoped to end this trip but Wow Wow Wow!

We know who we can count on and how fortunate we are! 

 70 SOMETHINGS DOING SOME THINGS saw more, did more and enjoyed more than we ever could have hoped for!                Thanks for joining us on our adventure!