Back home again in Indiana

The Sunday afternoon before we were to head home found us having a great visit with cousins, some of whom I hadn't seen since we were kids.  If you can't tell, I'm the oldest of the gathered cousins, but I have a couple other cousins older than me.

On Monday morning we set out for Indy intending to split the over 8 hour drive into two days.  However as we pressed on, the driving was easy, the traffic was minimal, and my energy level was good; soooo, we decided to go all the way.

Unfortunately, we wound up veering off the road and my truck and trailer didn't fare so well.















OK, so that's not really my rig, we wound up at home about 7 pm local time, parked in the drive and headed out to get some supper.

I thought you might find some statistics about our trip interesting, so hold on, here goes:

We were on the road for 84 days covering 8,412 miles in 14 different states.  

We attended 8 different Lutheran churches and listened to the Lutheran Hour on 2 Sundays when a church was just a little too far to drive.  

Of the 84 days we only paid typical rates for a campground with hookups for 19 nights.

That means that for 65 nights we camped for free or at minimal cost.  20 nights were dry camping using a generator or at a cousin's house.  17 nights were dry camping with solar panels for electricity. 12 nights were dry camping at a small fee.  And 14 nights were free full hookup in exchange for labor at Standing Stones.

The strong F-350 6.4 liter diesel got 11-13 mpg depending on the terrain.  

We experienced some unexpected truck repairs and necessary maintenance as well as trailer repairs and necessary maintenance which included 4 new trailer tires. 

We chose to install the solar panels sooner than we had planned, but once we dry camp for free for 73 nights we will have recouped that investment.  We are already well on our way to that goal.

Our goals for this trip were: to escape from a mid-west winter, see a lot of God's beautiful creation, find places where we might like to spend more time, and discover the pro's and con's of dry camping.  We agree that we have successfully achieved all of those goals.  We have also been able to meet a lot of great new friends and re-connect with relatives all across the country.

All in all, God blessed us with safety and good health as we experienced the trip of a lifetime.  

soli deo gloria