Now that we are home, we have had a bit of time to enjoy the memory of our trip. The GPS tracks show upwards of 10,000 miles traveled. We went to some new states and caught up with many friends and relatives.

We renewed relations with some after MANY years. We saw Catharpin Blue and her new owners. We went to my 61st High School Reunion and the funeral of my best friend.

All in all we were gone 66 days (the day after Labor Day in September to the day after Veterans Day in November. The weather was beautiful all the time except the rain the the Pacific Northwest. We saw ALL of the National Parks in Utah. We saw 5 Presidential Libraries/Museums and followed some of the Lewis and Clark Voyage route. We updated our National Park Pass book with about 15 new entries.

We saw each of the grandchildren in their college environments. It was wonderful to see how they are each becoming unique individuals.

We travelled in the car (a hybrid that gets over 40 MPG). We stayed with relatives for about 15 of the days we were gone. We stayed in medium priced hotels along the way and had no real trouble getting last minute reservations. The prices were very reasonable except in the National parks area (in September). We prefer this to a camper where you have a large box to pull making it harder to climb hills. We went up to over 11,000 feet in Colorado and Utah (three or more times) and below sea level near the Salton Sea in California.

We learned so much. Mostly about geology and history. And it really made us hungry to learn more. We even saw our first "show" in Nashville ( high school acquaintance of Sam's) Ray Stevens.

Most of all, people everywhere were very friendly. And... we avoided COVID !!!