We pulled into the house last night about 7 p.m. almost exactly twelve hours after we pulled out of the campground in Colorado Springs. By 8 p.m. everything was in the house and out of the motor home. By 10 p.m. we were both sound asleep in our own beds.

Statistical information

In total we drove 4,790 miles over 23 days and were in fourteen states. Gasoline prices declined the further east we drove, going back up as we came through Colorado, Wyoming, and Idaho on our way home. However, even there prices had declined while we were gone. We bought gasoline in the same two Wyoming gas stations going out and coming back:

I’m pretty sure that much of the rest of the country enjoyed similar decreases in price.

I thought it was also interesting to look at gasoline prices during the entire trip. We bought gas 24 times for the motor home. The price varied from the highest price on October 6th of $3.519 to the lowest price on October 25th of $2.199, a spread of $1.32 per gallon. I thought that perhaps the differences in state taxes might explain some of that spread, but that was not the case. The highest and lowest prices were at the same fill-up, even net of state taxes. I put together in a chart all of the prices paid during the trip and highlighted the highest in red and the lowest in green, along with the state taxes and the prices net of state taxes:

This kind of statistical information is always interesting to me. I’m sure that I could run all kinds of statistics on this information, but that suffices for now!

iPhone: The New Guide Book

Usually when we travel we take with us guide books for the various states (or countries) where we’ll travel. This time we used a new method which worked out very well: the iPhone. Except for some spots in Wyoming and Nebraska, we had connection with the iPhone almost continually. As we’d drive through places the passenger would do a Google Search or a Wikipedia Search on the place and read the information to the driver. While we didn’t really have the ability to compare what we found online to what might have been in a guidebook, I’m certain that the Internet information was as good if not better. Further we were able to find information on the Internet on places that would probably never have been written about in a guidebook. For instance, Opal, WY has an entry in Wikipedia. There is nothing interesting about this place and this morning I checked our Wyoming guide books and neither of them had anything about Opal, WY. I think it’s likely we’ve purchased our last guidebook.

We’ll be home for the foreseeable future. We had a great trip and a lot of fun. We accomplished the goals we had set for the trip. We got home glad that we had gone but happy to be back home.

After a long day of driving we arrived at the Garden of the Gods campground in Colorado Springs about 6:30 p.m. last night. We were mighty glad to be here! The drive through northwest Oklahoma, western Kansas, and eastern Colorado was exceptionally boring. Our stop in Dodge City was a big disappointment. In fact, the picture with this post was the highlight of the drive.

We met our good friends Duane and Bobby for dinner at a favorite Japanese restaurant in Colorado Springs. We enjoyed good food and good conversation after which we retired back to our motor home and crashed for the night. Unfortunately, the body clock has not made the change and at 5:50 a.m. MDT I was awake. Maybe I’ll take a short nap this afternoon while Nina visits one of her friends. Meanwhile, we’re off to Church!

We got to the campground in West Memphis in the dark and in the rain. This morning the rain had stopped, but it was very foggy. As I walked outside I saw this very strange looking vehicle parked in one of the camp sites. I took a picture and sent it out on Twitter. A few minutes later I learned from a response that it was a UNICAT. I expect it is a Very Expensive (Much More Than A Hummer) Vehicle.

We got on the road about 8:30 a.m. headed west on I-40. We drove through Little Rock and then on to Oklahoma. We stopped at a campground in Oklahoma City about 6:30 p.m. CDT. This campground has pretty good wifi (that service was down at the campground in West Memphis). Tomorrow we’ll drive to Colorado Springs.

On the way we’ve been stopping at all the Welcome Centers. Nina has been collection pamphlets, the two- or three-panel kinds of pamphlets that have a nice picture on them. These pamphlets can be folded into boxes and have a kind of kaleidoscope effect. It takes four pamphlets to make the lid and four more to make the bottom. The collection process has been fun as it gets us out of the vehicle and walking around.

The second picture is the other side of the UNICAT. This vehicle definitely looked like it could go anywhere!

The pictures of the wedding have been posted by the photographer online. They’re password protected, so let me know if you’d like the URL and the password to access the pictures.

Meanwhile, it’s time to go to bed as we’ve got a long drive again tomorrow.

We left Marsha’s house in Ninety-Six, South Carolina about 8:30 am EDT. We pulled into our campground in West Memphis (just across the Mississippi River in Arkansas from Memphis) twelve hours later in the dark and the driving rain. I did a quick connect of water and electricity and we’re set for the night. The door is closed and locked. We’re not going anywhere until morning. It’s now 9 pm CDT, which our bodies consider to be an hour later. I’m going to split the difference and go to bed in another half-hour.

We went through Atlanta on I-85 and then turned west on I-20 to Birmingham, Alabama. Then we went northwest on US-78 to Memphis and across the river. We stopped at the Welcome Centers so Nina could pick up pamphlets to use for origami boxes and for lunch plus a couple of gas stops.

The further west the cloudier the sky got. About an hour outside of Memphis the skies opened and it got dark. Not very fun driving at night in the rain in traffic and unfamiliar territory. Jill ( our Garmin GPS) did a great job of navigating so we didn’t have to read a map in addition.

Tomorrow we’ll end up at Roman Nose State Park a bit northwest of Oklahoma City. We’ve decided to go through Pueblo on Saturday and into Colorado Springs for Sunday. We’ll do a little visiting, go to Church, and continue home (probably on Monday sometime). We’ll be home on Tuesday and this adventure will be finished.

Meanwhile, it’s still raining. Supposed to end overnight. That would be nice as the southeast really needs the rain rather than here. Goodnight, world!