All good things must end

     This could mean a lot of thing now that I think about it, not only our journey of 2016 but as most of you know our trip was delayed with our return to Iowa due to the passing of my Mother.  A deeply religious person was she and that being said I know she is now in a better place and back with Dad and all her friends and family that went before her.  We thank God for the time we were able to spend with her before she left, even though the Alzheimer/Dementia had pretty much left us wondering if and what she understood.  My last eye to eye contact with Mom was while I was at the foot of her bed, I teared up and she managed a smile and shook her head no-no-no as if to say "it's OK I'm going home to Dad."  Mom will be missed and remembered for a lot more that just that.
      After 13 more days in Davenport and parked at West Lake once more we left for Des Moines for another visit with Bev's family.........because as you might have figured, that's what we do!  When we're close to friends and family during our travels we make arrangement to pay them visits as long as their willing to have us.  Plans were for one night here in Altoona, Iowa Adventureland RV park and then head straight home to get Lisa and Jack back by Friday the 9th of September.  Yes, plans were for Lisa and Jack to ride back with us to save a little airfare after all that we had spent to this point getting everyone back for the funeral.  But wait a minute!  Maybe we'd like to spend a little more time on the road and not get home by the 9th, that sounds much better!  Both Bev and I neither one are ready to return just yet...........so Jack and Lisa will fly out Friday for Phoenix and Bev and I will continue our travels as planned towards Utah and then south towards Arizona and Phoenix to get home on or near the 19th of September.  We will continue to visit family in Des Moines until Friday morning and head west and might even get another round of golf in here in Des Moines!
     As much as we miss family, believe it or not we can't wait to be alone and on the road again and maybe out of country that rains day after day after day.  Yes, we had a few days of sun and nice temps before leaving Davenport and now we're in Des Moines and it's raining once more.  Being from Arizona where we get roughly 7 inches of rain a year we have definitely had our share for the year on this trip, hell we've been where we've had almost 7 inches in a day!  I've mentioned this as being one of ...............no this has been our longest trip yet in the motor home.  As of now sitting here in Des Moines, Iowa we have put 7308 miles on the coach since leaving Phoenix back on May 27th, now with heading to around Zion, Utah and then towards Phoenix we ought to end this trip with over 9000 miles traveled.  This amount of miles will end up being roughly 2500 to 3000 more than any other journey to date!  Let's all knock on wood that this old girl gets us back home without any problems....I see you all didn't knock on wood, let's do it now together!  Thank you!  By the way, the price of gas has made this a most enjoyable journey in one respect, right now we're paying the highest prices since leaving Phoenix back in May, right near $2.20 give or take a few pennies either way.
     The blogs aren't over, I feel a couple more before we end up in Phoenix so stay tuned to this channel for more updates we enjoy sharing our adventures.

Mike & Bev