Home

Well, the Roving Ralphs, are roving no more.  We arrived home in Webster in the early hours of Saturday morning.  We are experiencing "road lag", but slowly working our way through the piles of mail and laundry under which we are buried.  We are very much looking forward to reconnecting with our animals and our friends. 

Scales Lake Park

We had a mostly good day today.  We met up with "internet friends" who are now just "friends".   The day was a bit saddened by the accident that R. had at the lake.  I have to say, he is an amazingly brave young man and his sisters are so caring and kind. We wish him a speedy recovery!  Laurinda got to spend the whole day with K.  The whole family is just an awesome set of people and we are so glad to have gotten to know them better. 

We are leaving tonight to make our way toward PA.  We are anxious now to get home and back to a regular routine....and more than 29ft of living space.  Just a few days now and we will be home. 

July 19th..

It has been warmer as we have gone along home.  Dad made up a game.  First you think of a car and they you say, "find a green car" and then when you find a green car you say, "I got it! I got it!".  Or it could be a green motorcycle or a green truck, or a green vehicle.  Sometimes it has to be only a green truck, or a yellow truck.  It is a fun game, but we have more fun games, but I think that is the most funnest game here. 

I love going out to eat.  We went to a steak house, all of us, for dinner.  We went to a pizza place.  We had chocolate at the "corner place" (Ghiridelli's in San Fransisco).  And we got two "stamples" of chocolate, one at each store.  

We had lots of bloody noses when we changed states (continuous altitude changes through the mountains).  We had lots of ice cream.  The End.

Happy Birthday....

to my dear friend, Tracy!  Thinking of you as we travel from Missouri, through Illinois and into Indiana.  Through the years, no matter where in the country (or the world) either of us have been, I always remember your birthday....probably because you always like to point out that I am OLDER than you are! LOL  Have a great day!  Can't wait to see you and the boys when we get back to MA.

Scribe's Log Stardate 7.18.11.

Our journey is (much too quickly) coming to an end.. As  we drive in 100 degee heat for the umpteenth  day, I am happy to be heading home, but am sad that the trip is over so soon. I can't believe 5weeks is almost over. The serenity of life on the road has been unique and very enjoyable. Typing in a bumpy car is hard, but you start adaping (or not caring). It is unsettling how soon I will be jumping into a hectic and regulated schedule. I love play practice, my pets, my friends and (kinda like) runnning but a life with no "schedule" is a unique and calming experience. Plus, Ill have to make my own breakfast and lunch....

None the less, the trip is not over yet as we are still  fun-filled days away from home. On Wednesday, we are in Booneville, In to meet a very special person. Then, Pennyslvania at a water park and then home. WOW! The trip went by so fast.

A jelly bean factory, a candy "factory", the Corn Palace, and the Potato Museum

A buncha canyons (ok 2) the Grand Canyon and Palaboro (sp?) Canyon (Texas)

Mount Rushmore, boiling mud, and Old Faithful (the geyser at yellowstone)

A musical, and a jail

All 50 license plates!

Crater of the Moons, and Golden Gate Bridge

25 states.....and counting

Over 5000 pictures....

And countless memories

Our Trip - Thomas

Our trip has been great! I've had so much fun. There has been so many great things I can't pick which was my favorite.  If I had to pick 5 they would be The Grand Canyon, San Francisco, The Great Salt Lake, Yellowstone, and The Texas Show.  Were now in Missouri, we just left a candy factory. I bought a very expensive soda and then shot half of it out my nose!!!!!

Hot is just not a strong enough word to describe this weather!

We slept, or rather tried to sleep, at a truck stop in Chandler, OK.  Even with the generator running, so the AC was on, it was just too hot to be comfortable.  The noise of the trucks and highway did not help either.  JW got up at one point in the night.  He was too hot to sleep, so he went and sat in the bathroom until he cooled down (the bathroom has an AC vent in it, so if you shut the door while the AC is on, it is the coolest place in the RV), when he came out, he flopped himself on the sofa.  There just was no place to be comfortable last night.  It stayed in the low 90s through the whole night! 

Since we couldn't sleep, we got on the road about 5am.  We made it through the rest of OK, through Kansas and into Missouri before 8am.  As we drove through the northeastern tip of KS, into Joplin, MO we saw crews clearing away the debris from destroyed houses.  Up the hill there were other houses all boarded up.  It has been 2 months since the hurricane that caused so much damage and still they are cleaning up the mess.  One local told Tom that no construction was allowed to begin untill the clean up of destroyed buildings was complete.  He also said that many people are not even going to try to rebuild.  They are just taking the insurance money and moving elsewhere.  The Walmart has a storm relief center.  All over the small city, there are signs of hope and encouragement.  The people seemed sad; doing/saying all the normal things, just quiet like.  Still, they were going about their business and it was clear they were getting on with their lives as best they could.

We are passing through Springfield, MO now.  We are not really sure where will be stay tonight, but we are very glad that we are heading toward relatively cooler temperatures....who ever thought we would consider, highs of 97 and lows of 75...."cooler"?! 

Elena's new favorite state.

Elena, sitting at the dinner table tonight: "Mommy, I have a NEW favorite state!"

Mom, figuring she knows the answer, as we have just spent 2 days in TX: "Really, what's it's name?"

Elena matter-of-factly, "It's name is Home."

I think it is time The Roving Ralph's made their way to that lovely "state".  We have had wonderful adventures, and have a few more experiences to encounter on our Eastward trek, but we are ready to fall back into the comforts and familiarity of "Home". 

"Texas" - The Musical!

We had a HOT but enjoyable night in Palo Duro Canyon State Park, in Canyon, TX.  They hold productions of a musical called, "Texas" there every summer.  This is their 46th season.  The show came recommended by a number of people we spoke to (from S. California to Texas itself), so we spurged and bought tickets.  We started with an interesting steak dinner.  They had fruits and salad, too, so we all ate pretty well.  Unfortunately, although it was 6pm, it was still deathly hot.  By the time the show started at 8:30pm it was only uncomfortably hot.  The show was lively and colorful.  It was....well, let's just say that Texans have a healthy state patriotism, and they clearly do things a bit differently in TX.  :)

We had a nice time overall.  JW got "overheated" during the 2nd act and had to leave. They are apparently used to such things because they had a "routine" for helping.  They gave him packs of ice to put under his arms and stuck him in the walk-in refrigerator!  That worked so well that he was too cold!  LOL

The people in Texas were really quite friendly, even the guys who were working in 109 deg weather as they fixed (yet another) flat tire on the RV.  We left TX this afternoon and are currently driving through Oklahoma.  It is getting greener as we travel East, but it is not getting cooler.  It was over 100 deg today and even now at 8pm is it still crazy hot!  I have NEVER experienced this kind of crazy hot weather, and I hope never to again!

We hope to sleep at a rest area somewhere btw Oklahoma City and Tulsa tonight.  We head for Missouri in the morning.

Dawn in New Mexico

It is a cool, fresh morning in Santa Rosa New Mexico.  Everyone else is asleep and I am out at the picnic table having coffee, all by myself!  I truly LOVE living on the road.  I only miss two things; the companionship of friends and family and time to myself. 

We had a relatively relaxing afternoon and evening yesterday.  We were in desperate need of doing laundry (several of us had literally NO clean clothes left).  Everyone got in their suits, because the clothes we had on were at least twice worn.  This campground has the pool right next to the laundry room (exactly where every campground laundry should be) and free wifi on the patio, so E got a ton of swim time in.  The campground also has cable, so the other kids got in large amounts of swim and/or TV time.  There was a Spongebob special on, so JW was a happy little boy.

Today is the beginning of our 5th week and our thoughts are turning towards home more and more.  It is interesting to see the things that each of us is happy or unhappy to return to.  E speaks about her friends and swimming every day.  JW keeps mentioning sleepovers with C and is sorely missing Legos.  J and T are also talking about sleepovers and "teen socials with their friends.  J is missing video game time and T is talking about football.  L obviously misses her friends and is planning her party, which is just a week after we get home.  All the kids are talking about the animals.  T is particularly excited to see Hope again.    Tom and I are focused more, I think, on the things we need to DO when we get home.  He is mostly excited about getting "back" to things.  I am not so much.  I will be so happy to reunite with friends, but I have truly enjoyed these weeks of less obligations of every variety and of new and exciting (although not always pleasant) experiences.

Today we are off to Palo Duro Canyon state park in Amarillo, TX.  We are hoping to go to a dinner theater show there tonight.   We are again on Route 66 today and hope to make a stop at Cadillac Ranch on our way to TX.

And so it goes.  Part of us is clearly turn our focus more and more towards home, but we still have one week left and are hoping to have some more adventure before we return.  Can't wait to see you all next week!

Lost in Colorado

In fairness, we were never lost.  We knew exactly where we where; what we could not figure out was where our campground was!  We thought it was in Mesa Verde National Park (that is what the reserving website said).  Turns out it was only relatively near Mesa Verde. The only directions we had were from a town 20m to our north.  We called the reservation "help line" and they did not have an "actual" address for the campground, only the same directions we had.  The representative did know it was "somewhere" between Cortez and Dolores, Co....gee, thanks, that was helpful.  NOT! 

So by cross referencing their (lousy) directions with our map and having L (on the blackberry) and T (on the computer) looking up maps of the surrounding area, we were able to (finally) find our campground and camp site.  We did not get here until 10pm!  We had a (very) late dinner and the kids are now in bed.  We found when we got here and tried to level the camper, that we have a flat tire, so tomorrow we are hoping to get it fixed quickly so we can actually go see Mesa Verde National Park.

On a fun note, we went to "4 corners" today. It was a cheesy tourist stop, but it was fun.  The kids enjoyed being in 2 different time zones and 4 different states at the same time.  They ran "through" all four states in seconds.   We honestly don't know where we are headed to tomorrow...just further East.

Hiking the Grand Canyon

Hiking down the Grand Canyon is scary and breathe-taking and awe-inspiring.  Hiking up is literally a pain in the behind....and calves and feet. LOL   We actually did not go too far down, only about a mile.  The kids wanted to continue, but Tom and I were really concerned about the younger two's ability to make it back up!  It was hard, but they did great.  The older ones are already talking about coming back and hiking all the way down, camping out and hiking back up.  We saw a Marine hiking up with two big packs, one on his front and one on his back.  It was like he was carrying Elena and James...and hiking up the entire Grand Canyon!  It was amazing.   We planned to come back to the RV for dinner then head out for shopping and ice cream, but I was TIRED after such a busy day, so we just stayed in.  We are headed to Colorado today.  We have rather drastically changed our itenerary to lighten amount of driving the RV has to do, so we will not be seeing Carlsbad Caverns nor Crater of Diamonds.  So we don't have much in the way of plans for the next few days. We will have to see what kinds of adventures we can russle up.  :)