What a joy it is to be home! We thoroughly enjoyed our adventure, overcame many obstacles, met interesting people, observed an abundance of beautiful sights and amazing wild life, but it was so great to drive up the road and see our little home sitting there just waiting for us. Now we are experiencing the next burst of energy to unpack, sort, clean, wash, and put away, not to mention all of the things around the house that need to be done after a winter of neglect. The weather is lovely, the wild flowers are blooming, the creek is bubbling away, and we are loving being home.

We are already talking about plans for our next adventure, perhaps Baja in the fall, but we have lots of time to think about that. It has been so much fun for me to write this blog, and I've enjoyed knowing that you are out there listening. So until next time...

For nine days we have survived the holes and bumps of America's poorly maintained highways, a dust storm in New Mexico that nearly swallowed us alive, and manuevering our 31 ft. boat through narrow roads, streets, and parking lots of many towns, small and large. And, tomorrow, if all goes well, we will arrive home during daylight hours on the tenth day of travel. Needless to say, we are so ready to be home. It has been a grueling drive!

We have amused ourselves with lots of questions about what we observed out the window: What is that thing? What is (or was) it used for? How do people make a living here? Where do they get their water? And then, of course, we also speculate the answers to all of our questions, and then argue our individual opinions. We've gotten a lot of mileage out of these discussions. I mean, you gotta do something with all those road miles.

I'm looking forward to being physically active again, getting back on my exercise regimen and working in the garden, having a large kitchen to cook in, and continuing with all of the projects I started before leaving home in November. And I am really excited to see family and friends that we haven't seen in four months...so many things to catch up on!

There is a line somewhere just west of San Antonio, in the hill country of Texas, where the climate changes. As you travel west from the city, the air becomes drier, there are no longer a multitude of creeks, ponds, and rivers, and the grass along the side of the road turns from green to brown (with a little sprinkling of green from new sprouts). To me, this is the place where the west begins, and we just crossed that line today. Tonight I felt the need to put on lotion, my hair has a crackling of electricity in it, and the air feels like home.

We've been making good time coming west, traveling about 375 miles each day. Tomorrow will be our third day in Texas, but we will be in New Mexico tomorrow night. Once again we entertain ourselves by singing, by me reading various things to Don, by doing crossword puzzles together, and by talking about our trip and what we will do when we get home. We were really a long way from home!

Along the way so far we have witnessed several things that were really cool. First, as we were crossing the southern tip of Florida on Alligator Alley (as they call it) through the Everglades, the clouds were growing darker and darker. We pulled off the highway to get gas and were under the canopy of the station. It was starting to rain a little bit, so Don put on his rain coat. He got out to fill the truck and then suddenly jumped back in, saying, "Not now!" Just as he shut the door, the lightning flashed, the wind increased to a gale, and the rain came pummeling down, bashing against the windshield, all in a matter of seconds. The palm trees bent way over and, to us, it was like being in a mini hurricane, but it was only a squall that lasted 5 minutes or so. We were thankful to not be sailing when a squall like that blew through.

The second cool thing we saw happened when we were taking a walk by our motel. We noticed some animals running down the middle of the suburban street and, at first, we both thought they were deer from their trotting gait. We followed them and quickly saw that they were large birds, two adults and two juveniles. We guessed that they might be blue herons (they were that big) but they just didn't quite look right. Slowly, we were able to approach them as they moved through the neighborhood, and finally we recognized them: Sandhill Cranes. It was a family: Mom, Dad, and two fuzzy, reddish-brown babies with long gangly legs. They were so cute and we were so excited!

The third cool thing we saw just this afternoon. On the edge of the highway a group of about ten javelinas grazed on the new green sprouts of grass. They were surprisingly small and dark, but very hairy and pig-like. We had passed them by in the truck before we were able to stop to watch them, but I did get a good look at them. We always feel so fortunate when we're able to see such amazing things...the things you just don't get to see at home.