Ramblin Stoweaway Final Post and Final Thoughts

Well readers my Faithful and Obedient Companion and I have come to the end of our journey.  We arrived in Stowe last evening after a trip that lasted 41 Days and a little over 11,000 miles.  In that time we visited 8 National Parks (Yosemite, Bryce, Zion, North and South Rim of Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Sequoia, Kings Canyon (Briefly) Joshua Tree, 2 National Monuments (Devils Postpile, Canyon De Chelly), 4 Presidential Museums (Reagan, Nixon, Eisenhower, Truman), numerous wineries, Big Sur State Park, the Central California Coast, Sausalito, and the High Sierra at Mammoth Lakes.  We played Golf twice and of course spent some time in San Diego upon Eric's return.  We met numerous nice people on our journey and had an opportunity of a lifetime meandering in general.  It was a dream come true for both of us.

What has also been gratifying is the chance to share our trip with all of you.  So many of you have posted comments and shown an interest in sharing our trip.  Many have not posted public comments but have let us know your thoughts by Email.  As I promised at the beginning this blog may be fun or like a bad Christmas Letter.  I am sure you have found it to be both!  Like all good (or bad) events in our lives it is time to close this chapter and move on.

I could go on with a lot of comments about America in general, but I won't.  Instead I thought I would rap it up with the following which sums up perfectly my feelings.

Oh Beautiful for spacious skies

For amber waves of grain

For purple mountains majesty

Above the fruited plain

America, America God shed his grace on thee

and crown thy good ......

with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!!!!

With that dear readers, I bid you adieu.

Shuffling off to Buffalo - what -- no wings???

On the way to Rainbow Falls - near Mammoth Lakes

Basically it was a day in the car - we have 560 miles to go to reach the solitude of Marmota Acres.  We are finally in the Eastern Time zone.  Maddox (our car)  will have added over 11,000 miles during our trip.  Whew, she is ready for a rest!

Following a Lanz tradition, we (I) kept track of the state license plates and are still missing only two states.  Can you guess which ones? Maybe Alaska or Hawaii?  No!  We saw several Alaska cars and one Hawaii (guess they shipped it here cause it wouldn't float).  Surprising that over the last 40 days we didn't see a Mississippi or a West Virginia.

Dear Sons: we haven't played the alphabet game even once - need you for that.  I get too distracted to play fairly while driving.

Here is another surprising thing:  Today we had our first rain in 40 days.  The last was a few dribbles driving through NY on the way west.  Today it was in Ohio & PA on the way east.  Maddox was thrilled to finally get the red clay from the Navaho Reservation partially watered off of her.  This is a  phenomena for us!  Every vacation we take it seems to be in the rain.  We went to Turks & Caicos and they had 8 inches of rain --they only get 17 inches a year!  We always pack rain jackets and this time they have remained int he bottom of the suitcase.  Fair warning if you ever vacation with us!

No new pictures to post today so I will post 3 of my favorites:

Blair & Eric Outside their apartment

Bryce Canyon

Looking forward to hearing from all of you when we get home and hopefully seeing you all soon.

Love, 

Mrs. Murray Rider