We're Home!!!!

Madison Wisconsin - Ewing NJ
6/27/24

Miles Traveled    933
Trip Total           8256
Travel Time      15:38

States visited: FL, GA, AL, MS, LA, TX, NM, AZ, UT, NV, CA, OR, WA, ID, MT, ND, WI

Trip Statistics 1/Apr/24 - 26/Jun/24

Miles:           8256
Driving Time: 165 Hours

States                 17*
Travel Days   41
Total Days   88
Campground 55
BLM 2
Harvest Host 6
Parking Lot 1
Elks 18
        * States are only counted if we spent the night camping there.

We had one hell of a last day.  Last night we stayed in a Cracker Barrel parking lot.  Well we sort of stayed there.  We had gone to sleep at 9PM, with plans to wake up at 5:30AM.  Around 12:30 Angel woke up when someone parked directly behind our RV and Car and spent a few minutes looking around their car before going to the hotel next door.   There were also a few people hanging around outside the hotel that was adjacent to the Cracker Barrel parking lot.  With all the people hanging out that late at night, we decided not to stay there 

With a little more research, I found another Cracker Barrel 75 miles away, and off we went.  As much as we did not want to drive at night, the lack of traffic made it very easy.  Since the night time driving was not bad we decided, rather than stop at the next Cracker Barrel I would drive until I need to get some sleep.  

What a great decision, we ended up driving through the Chicago area at 5:00am instead of during rush hour. We did hit some traffic around Chicago, but nothing like we would have at 9AM with our original plan.  Knowing I would need to get some sleep we planned to drive until on of three things happened; Rush hour traffic, Me getting sleepy,  Blinding Sun Rise (We were heading east directly into the sun)  The sun and me getting sleepy happened at the same time so we pulled into a rest stop for a 40 minute nap.

After napping we hit the road knowing that we could make it home before dark.  It was a loooonnnnggggg day, but we did it.  Five states, two time zones, two fuel stops, and four bathroom breaks later, before we made it home at 7:25pm.

Once we parked we grabbed just what we needed for the night and headed for the boat.  Tomorrow we will return to unload the RV we are exhausted and need a good nights sleep.