We're Back - A Triumph of the Human Spirit!

Howard here,

The boys and I returned home late Friday afternoon to a happy reunion with Eve, Maryrose, Ben, Marci, three dogs, four cats and Maryrose's guinea pig. You can tell by the blurring of the tails in the dogs' pictures that they were particularly happy to see us.

Below are a few of the statistics of our trip:

Total distance traveled: 8672 miles

Vertical distance traveled: From 280 below sea level in Death

Valley to 10,850 feet above sea level in the Great

Continental Divide.

States visited: 20; not including some additional that Eve and

Maryrose passed through on the train.

Temperature range: From a high of 121 degrees in Death Valley

to a low of 46 degrees in Yellowstone.

Tires expended: Five; two on the car and three on the camper

including two within an hour of one another.

Road Kills: Sadly, 1 squirrel in Yellowstone National Park

Gallons of gas used: 495.5 not including what we used since the last fill up yesterday.

Most gallons put into the tank at one time: 20.3 gallons into a 20 gallon tank. We passed three

closed gas stations on the way into Columbus, Georgia before we found one selling gas. The

rum tasted very good that evening.

Ships visited: Eight; two battleships, one aircraft carrier, two destroyers, two submarines and

an LST. We saw significant pieces of three others in museums.
Battlefields visited: Two; the Alamo and Chalmette (we didn't visit any forts other than Fort

Leavenworth)
Campgrounds visited: 21

Campgrounds stayed in: 19 (two campgrounds didn't pass muster)

Military bases stayed in: Four; Davis-Montham AFB, NAB Coronado, Nellis AFB and the

U.S. Air Force Academy
Bears seen: Two; one in Yellowstone and Mr. Bear.

Close encounters with bison: One in Yellowstone crossing the road right behind our car.

Sightings of Aliens, Bigfoots and the Lock Ness Monster: Several, look closely at the picture

below and others in previous blogs. You may have to zoom in.

Cans of pasta and Dinty Moore beef stew eaten by the boys: At least 26, they're sick of them.

Play Misty for Me

Howard here, after a long day traveling through thunderstorms we arrived at the Misty River Campground in Walland, Tennessee. Located in the Smoky Mountains, the Misty River supposedly got its name from a moonshiner remarking on its appearance after sampling his wares. We've now traveled 8297 miles and have 390 miles to go. We'll get home late Friday afternoon.

LST 325

After we left our campground in Whittington, we stopped to see the USS LST 325. LST stands for landing ship, tank. Our tour guide was a marine who served in Vietnam. LST's sailed up onto beaches and then their cargo of tanks and other vehicles drove off.

<-- These are the doors through which the vehicles leave the vessel.

Wildlife sightings

At our campground in the Whittington Woods campground, there were some chickens walking around.

<-- Me (Theodore) standing in front of the chickens.

A Thunderous Thursday Morning

Howard here, Thursday morning finds us hunkered down in a tremendous thunderstorm at the Whittington Woods campground in Whittington, Illinois. It's 8:00 in the morning and dark as night outside. You might not find Whittington on the map, it's very small and south of Mount Vernon. The campground is quiet and lovely. We had a double lot and for an hour yesterday, a private swimming pool. We have traveled 7,847 miles now and are 773 miles from Sullivan's Island. We're spending tonight in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee.

Leavenworth

Today, August the 4th, day 28, we went to Leavenworth and saw the Federal Penitentiary and the US Military Disciplinary Barracks.

These are the guard buffalo that are on the grounds of the Federal Penitentiary to discourage escape attempts.


We don't have any good pictures of the US Military Disciplinary Barracks.

Shiny Car

The same day we went to the Steamboat Arabia, our car got a carwash. This is only worth mentioning because it made our car nice and shiny.