Home sweet home!

After almost 5 months on the road, near 10,000 miles traveled, and 21 states we are home! It feels really good but we are already thinking about our next adventure. Perhaps a trip down the Ulanga my dear?

Somewhere near Toledo at a Truck Stop!

Left Iowa City early this morning and here we sit after going through Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and now Ohio. Spring was everywhere on the ride over today. I love the bright green on all of the trees!

We are in our fifth month of this journey and it seems like we have been away from home forever. It will be great to get there but we will miss our home "on the road" as we have had so many terrific adventures! Florida, New Orleans, San Antonio, Tucson, and Malibu with G-kids were all great! Monument Valley was the icing on the cake! So much done and seen, so many wonderful people along the way...and still so much we have not seen! Hmmm!

Speaking of things that make me say Hmmm...

The Big Push!

We left Pender, Nebraska this morning on a rainy and dreary day. It rained more today than it has for the whole time we have been away. Now we are at an Army Corps of Engineers Park in Iowa City. It's called the Damn Complex and we quickly found out why: Pretty dam complex place to navigate and find our campsite!!! We finally did and re settled in at a beautiful spot below the damn. One of the nicest sites we have had and only 13 bucks with my senior citizen national parks card!!!
Here are a few pics of where we are right now:

This is the great campsite for 13 bucks! Paved with full hookup and 50 amp service

 The damn spillway

 Everything is so green in Iowa! Springtime!

We are pushing hard now to make it home.By the way, Teddy has settled in and become a valuable member of the crew!!

Blue Ox

We are in a little town in northern Nebraska called Pender. Yesterday we drove through the Nebraska heartland and saw farmers everywhere plowing their field as spring has arrived!

The reason we have traveled to this little out of the way town is to visit the Blue Ox Company. They manufactured our trailer hitch and we want to get some adjustments on our system. Basically, our hitch needs to be higher so we don't scrape the car hitch on the ground when we pull in and out of places. They are going to reinstall our baseplate in a different configuration. So here we are!!

Just hanging out on a beautiful day! Sunny and 70's. Washed the coach for the first time since last fall. Lots of bugs on the front end! When the car is done, we will take a ride through the mighty metropolis of Pender!

Tomorrow begins the big push to get home. Once I cross the Missouri I am heading for the finish line as fast as I can!

Diner Food

If I were a younger man looking for a fruitful career, I would move to Denver and open an RV Park. Why? Because Denver doesn't have any. At least none that had room for us. We wanted to spend an evening with Joanna's cuzzints so we needed a place to stay. Sorry pal! We tried Truck stops and a sleezy hotel parking lot without luck.

Finally, we found Deno's Restaurant and they welcomed us with open arms. We could park overnight for free, as long as we ate dinner there. Heck, that was easy! The food is delicious! We even had breakfast this morning after a pleasant visit with family last night. A big thanks to Paula and Phill and Sue for coming out to be with us!

Now we are in Nebraska heading for Pender. More on that later!

Evidently Deno's is featured in a movie with Leonardo called Dear Eleanor. Guess I need to watch it!

 That's us on the end, just like a trucker!

You're where?

Yesterday in Utah:

 Today on the way to Denver

We are parked at Deno's Restaurant in Commerce City in Denver. Why Deno's you ask? Joanna has cuzzints here and we wanted to meet them for dinner. After calling around during the week it became apparent there was no place to stay. All the RV Parks are filled. We couldn't even get into a truck stop!!

The nice folks at Deno's have thrown out the welcome mat and we are mighty happy to get in somewhere! Food is supposed to be good so we will see.

We have been traveling the past 2 days with no signal. Last night we stayed at Island Acres State Park near Grand Junction. Right on the Colorado River!!! Would have loved to fish it!

Today we chugged over on I-70 through the mountains. My goodness there were some steep mountain passes to climb. At one point we were at 11,158 ft. above sea level. Haelp...I can't breathe!!!

Thought we had a transmission problem at one point but it turned out to be low fluid.  We had to crawl up many hills and heated up the brakes on the way down, but by jiminy we made it!!!

Trendy Vail wasn't the highest spot:

More from Monument Valley:

Petroglyphs left behind by ancient Anastazi Indians:

One of the mittens:

Monument Valley 3

More incredible photos:

 John Wayne road up this trail in the 1939 picture, Stagecoach.

 The Mittens

Still more to come!

Monument Valley 2

Had a wonderful day touring the valley with many pictures. It was a humbling experience for me at the hands of grandiose Mother Nature!

 a real Navajo "Hogan" or home

 The Navajo in the red shirt was Don, our guide for the afternoon tour.

 We learned a great deal about ancient Navajo culture.

 Same hogan from the outside

Monument Valley 1

Took a little hike this morning and I must say, being at 6,000 feet altitude makes you huff and puff. 

 That is us behind the tree

 nice stone arch on the trail