As the saying goes all good things must come to an end.............and so it had to be with our year of adventure. We finished off with a canoe trip down the Brulle river in Wisconsin (a place James had visited as a child) and a stop in northern Minnesota to see our new friends Bob, Linda & Jeff. James wanted to do some last mintute fishing and they promised to hook him up. I quickly realized that in this part of the country they give you your birth certificate along with your fishing license. We had a classic 'Grumpy Old Men' moment when Bob asked Jeff if they were going fishing in Merril lake the next day and Jeff became very agitated and told Bob to lower his voice so Walleye Dan wouldn't overhear. The fishing ended up not being so good because the weather was a little cold, but the company was great. They really rolled out the red carpet for their new friends from the south even making us a cool sign for the hacienda.
Last Wednesday we began the sad trek home and were welcomed back into the sweltering heat Thursday night. James waited until 9:00 Friday morning before going to work. Nice to see he really got the perspective he needed from this year off. It has been a whirlwind since then. My sister Juli is here with her family, my sister Janet just had a little girl (Samantha Karen 8lbs 1 oz), we have a foster teenage boy moving in with us for the summer, and we are trying to move back into our house. We are still sleeping in the RV. I'm not sure if I haven't been able to get the bedroom together because I haven't had the time or because I haven't had the desire. Sleeping in the house means it really is over, I'm not sure if I'm ready to admit that. James is keeping a watchful eye to make sure I don't sink into another depression but I think I will be okay. He didn't work Sunday so he could get the pool ready, so that will be my anit-depressant for the summer.
Besides the accomplishment of still being married after living in a 26 ft. home for a year we have also been to 33 states, 2 other countries and 20 national parks. We drove over 35,000 miles and stayed in 90 campsites; including driveways, rest areas, Wal-Mart parking lots, one alley and a ferry dock. We have biked over 300 miles and hiked almost 300 (James swears it had to be more). We have taken over 3,000 pictures (anyone up for a slide show?) and made a ton of memories.
It has been really fun writing this blog and James has enjoyed it so much he is even thinking about taking a writing class at the University this fall. Thank you so much for all of the great comments and encouragement. We have loved the feedback from everyone, but I feel a special shout out should go to our 3 most faithful commentors Tracy, Janet and Tuna. Tracy, thank you again for letting us stay with you and I hope we continue to keep up in emails, we will have to play Balderdash with Tuna the next time you are here so we can have an acronym showdown. Janet, I could say anything about you because you probably won't look at a computer for another year or so, but you know I love you. Tuna, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to faithfully read and comment. I don't know if James would have been able to enjoy himself as much this year if he was worried about things at home, thank you for relieving that burden from him.
We have realized alot of things this year....... if you burn a pie in the RV the smell will linger for weeks, Wisconsn has the most expensive state campgrounds, RV toilets never clog, never hike on a trail in New Mexico labeled difficult, you can survive with only 5 pairs of shoes, Spam is not a childhood food you should revisit, rednecks do not live only in the south, laundry mats are great places to people watch, the backup camera really is a marriage saver, but the most important thing we have realized is how blessed we are to have each other along with such good friends & family.
We plan to continue our adventures, they will just have to be a little closer to home for awhile!
Love, Kim & James
