Captain’s Log – Star Date 08302009
Location: Home Port, Galaxy of California
(Translation: our house in San Diego)
Star Ship Wolverine docked at Home Port at 1707 hours (5:07 PDT)
Engineering Report: Everything Worked! Truly Excellent, Dude!
Weather Report: Hot!! REALLY HOT!!
Trip Initiation Odometer Reading – 106139.4
Trip Final Odometer Reading -- 116186.3
TRIP MILES -- 10,046.9
FUEL USAGE -- 11.9 MPG
Commodore’s Assessment – ALL MISSION GOALS MET OR EXCEEDED!
Captain: We’re HOME!
Admiral: (Yawn and Stretch!)

We could taste the sour dust in the tan swirling air…The outside temperature stood at 111 degrees Fahrenheit…Welcome to El Centro, California! The outside temperature topped out at 113F as we crossed California’s Imperial Valley and started the steep climb into the Laguna Mountains east of San Diego. This situation is to be expected if one is crazed enough to drive from Phoenix to San Diego on an August afternoon! It was not a BAD trip … just a trip when our very lives depended upon the correct functioning of our truck’s air conditioning system! We took Angie into the truck with us as the trailer was far too hot. Our truck…and its AC system… functioned superbly, thank God, and we all arrived home in satisfactory condition!

As we drove into San Diego, Barbara was finishing Volume 24 of Dana Fuller Ross’ twenty-four-volume “Wagons West” fictional book series. She has read every volume on this trip…and has given me hints about the extreme hardships encountered in settling the American West…including the very places we had visited on our memorable journey! At home, our garage door exterior was graced by large colorful “Welcome Home” posters prepared by each of our granddaughters. Inside our house was a great balloon in the form of a Monarch Butterfly and a vibrant orange-and-yellow floral arrangement…gifts from Dan and Teri, our son and daughter-in-law. Our homecoming was as rich as our journey!

Our granddaughters, Laurel and Ella, have grown in our absence…they are tall and very smart and exceedingly beautiful! Of course…being a Grandpa…I am just a bit PREJUDICED! The girls introduced us to Frankie—our new grand-dog! We like him. He’s a mellow pup. I told Dan that Frankie is to dog-dom what Angie is to cat-dom! This is the highest honor an animal can GET!

Our journey has come to its conclusion. We are honored and grateful that all of you were a part of this adventure with us!

Chapter 3 of the Book of Ecclesiastes starts with one of my favorite verses…
“For everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under Heaven.”

The season for this RV travel adventure is over. We are happy to be home now!

Every season is a reason to celebrate our gift of life!

This blog is now finished. We hereby surrender our military commissions.

Affectionately,
Bob, Barbara and Angie

Over and Out.

HOMECOMING

LATE ENTRY - PROFILE VIEW!!

LATE ENTRY!!

Captain’s Log – Star Dates 08262009 through 08282009
Location: Cruising the Galaxies of Colorado and New Mexico
(Translation: Golden Clear Creek RV Park, Golden, Colorado; Las Vegas KOA, Las Vegas, New Mexico)
Trip Miles: 8,525.0
Diesel Price: $2.67 per gallon; 31.7 gallons loaded at Las Vegas, NM
Report from Engineering: Star Ship Wolverine was making a hell of a racket coming down the I-25! This necessitated a visit to Enchantment Ford in Las Vegas; cracked discovered in exhaust tailpipe; tailpipe weld repair job cost fifty-five bucks. Now, we are cool! Go for the long run home!
Weather: Sunny in a.m. and early p.m.; Temperature at 85F; Severe thunderstorm rains and gusty winds in late afternoon forced emergency berthing at Las Vegas KOA.

Driving to Denver, Colorado, from Cheyenne, Wyoming, was a SHOCK to us! Whereas Cheyenne is a laid-back country town of 55,000, Greater Denver is a megalopolis full of fast-paced young-ish drivers all talking into cell phones! Denver overflows with good-looking people who are into fitness. These are folks on the MOVE…”Let’s Make It HAPPEN!” This was not a pleasant galactic entry and the space pilot got a bit frazzled!

Golden is a cozy New-Age city that is totally dominated by the enormous Coors Brewery. We camped overnight at a pleasant creek-side RV park operated by the City of Golden. The evening of Star Date 08262009 was spent visiting Barbara’s niece Christine, an energetic dentist who recently opened her own Cosmetic and Family Practice Dentistry office. Her high-tech office was gorgeous and so was the house that she and her orthodontist husband Kevin have built in the foothills of the Rockies! We spent a relaxing evening dining with Christine, her two young sons and her two rescued dogs. We were sorry to miss Kevin who was touring New York City with his mother.

At this posting, we greet you from Las Vegas! Friends, Las Vegas, NM, is a HISTORIC (Hah!) town of 16,000 or so and is considerably OLDER than Sin City. Back in the days of the Santa Fe Trail in the early 1800’s, it was an important, thriving trade center. As mentioned in the Captain’s Weather Report, Las Vegas was not yesterday’s intended destination. We had hoped to make Santa Fe before sundown.

Last night I must report that we were feeling sorry for ourselves. We had yet another equipment problem which caused an unplanned layover and loss of a day of travel. Had we not experienced that equipment problem and had we not been required to spend an extra day in Las Vegas, we’d have missed Fort Union National Monument.

Fort Union was an important military supply and defense base on the Santa Fe Trail from 1851 to 1891. The value of the fort passed with the coming of the railroads. Its ruins remain on a remote windswept plain twenty-five miles north of Las Vegas, NM. We toured this silent memorial for two hours, allowing its rich history to speak to us. We had a glimpse of a time when the only way to travel between Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico, was by animal-drawn wagon along a 900-mile rutted dirt track. We had a view into the harshness and dreams of camp life here, especially for the wives. Somehow fittingly, the U.S. flag at the park visitor center flew at half-mast today, in remembrance of the passing of Sen. Ted Kennedy.

We are now on the Long Run Home and have a thousand miles to go before our arrival. We’ll be travelling at Warp Speed…God willing… and will post our next, and last, entry at the conclusion of our journey…

Until then, stay well!

Affectionately,
Captain Baldy