Day 14 - Wrapup and Contest Results

[Road Trip Wrapup] Well, it's over. Home safely.

Wilma did a great job! We really exercised her Nav system finding vets, restaurants, lodging, coffee, gas stations. It's such useful tool. Just can't imagine having a vehicle without one if you ever even leave your neighborhood. One thing learned was to NOT set the navigation to "Most Direct Route" unless you're willing to go over some really bad roads. We learned that at Canyon de Chelly. Besides the Nav system we found it very useful to have a road atlas on board. Linda keeps it in her lap turned to the appropriate page. It helps keep her entertained to see the big picture and, at times, provides some useful additional information to what Wilma tells us. The one we use is Mobile Travel Guide Road Atlas (large print, large scale, 30% larger maps than standard road atlases).

We also learned that it is not worth the space used to take the makings for homemade oatmeal. The breakfasts in motels these days are really more than adequate. And, it seems that fewer rooms are equipped with microwaves (because of the free breakfast?), yet more and more have small refrigerators. Linda decided that the space used to take her Neti pot and some salt WERE well worth it. She didn't have to use it even once - hooray for taking those sinuses to Arizona!

The winner of our first contest, "Name the Critter That Made This Sound" is Linda's sister, Gloria. In fact, hers was not only the first entry, but the only entry and she answered "Crow". While that answer is not technically correct (it was actually a Common Raven and there is a difference), it is close enough. Congratulations, Gloria, hope you enjoy your book on cacti! Gloria is usually a "first responder". John even thinks that she reads our postings before we even post them. Hmmmmmm!

We are thinking we might just dump the idea of having games and contests for you. As stated, Gloria was the ONLY one entering the "Name the Critter" contest and NO ONE even took a shot at our actual mileage. If only one person had done it, they would have won a really nice piece of petrified wood stolen from the Petrified Forest.... just kidding, we bought it at Jim Grey's Petrified Wood Company and, yes, we do have the receipt to prove that, Mr. or Ms. Park Ranger. For the record, our actual mileage was 2,373.7 miles. We have a nice place to display that piece of petrified wood!

So, please give us your feedback. Do you want us to keep having some games / contests on future adventures?

Haven't even started thinking of where to go next. Any more extravagent (more than 4-day) trips will be after John's Social Security benefits kick in. That will, indeed, be a Happy Birthday. Who says getting older stinks? We might figure out a short (two or three day) excursion between now and then. We love the coast and we love the mountains and we don't like snow. Now, there's a clue. And we have lots of places nearby we can explore for the 1st or 2nd time as Day Trips.

Less than a month until Christmas! We're looking forward to spending Christmas with our marvelous family, despite the fact than none of them, not even one, won a Nobel Prize, of any kind, during 2009. However, we think having boy/girl twins trumps anything the Nobel Committee can hand out.

Thanks for riding along with us. Hope what pictures we offered were to your liking and we hope you'll join us again on future road trips! Hasta la Vista Point Amigas and Amigos!