And so the adventure comes to a close.
We left Chowchilla Tuesday morning in good spirits. (That sentence never bodes well in a novel.) We planned to overnight in the desert to shorten the drive and avoid some of LA's worst traffic. When we reached Mojave, it was 102 and didn't look very inviting. (We had swerved east to avoid pulling the Box over the Grapevine and instead had to face Tejon Pass.) So far, so good. Another two hours and we would be home. Let's do it.
After filling up with gas for the umpteenth time, we hit the road and soon discovered our worst nightmare. Well, almost worst...the car air conditioner had died. It would not blow cool air. Oh, boy. So, we soon discovered that all of those glorious gas stations along the interstates have lovely convenience stores, but no garages. So, with windows partially down and all of us sweltering, we managed to cripple into Irvine that evening. We honestly kept a close eye on the Divine Miss M. A dead dog would not have made for a happy ending to our trip.
Of course, with a Box, you don't just go home. You go to the RV storage yard and unhitch. Fun times. You also unload just the essentials and scoot on home. As expected, Maggie was in doggy heaven. She probably never expected to see 14 Porter again. During the course of the evening, she was seen rolling joyously in the backyard grass.
And the aftermath? A huge tub at the post office full of a month's worth of mail (half of which is junk, which has to be sorted anyway), a trip back to the Box to completely fill the car with all the stuff we took so that we can wash/put it away at home until the next time, a yard that looks like the jungle that grew in Max's room and takes two days plus to trim, and a very hefty bill that gives us back our air conditioned van.
What we will miss and what we will not?
Will not miss living in 8'x23' of living space, lowering our bed each night and putting it back up in the wall every morning, inching our way around inside like an astronaut to avoid stepping on each other and the dog, taking an RV shower (water on, rinse, water off, soap up, water on, rinse--more times if you wash your hair), watching the gauges--do we have enough room in the gray water tank to get by until it's dumped?, do we have enough fresh water to shower, etc.?, trying to go to sleep early when sunset isn't until 10:00 pm, driving an average of 55 mph, slow enough that I now know how many configurations of wires there are on power poles, sweating out the miles until the next gas station, worrying about cell coverage and wifi, using laundromats (except at Yellowstone), fighting off bloodthirsty mosquitoes, and seeing a grizzly up close and personal.
Will miss seeing more awesome scenery than most people get to see in a lifetime, feeling free of encumbrances because we have brought the essentials with us, taking time to play games at night while listening to great CD's, watching the Divine Miss M revel in her walkabouts and taking in thousands of doggy scents, looking straight into the eyes of a wolf, driving slowly enough that we can read all the signs, locating wildlife and feeling as if we were on safari, listening to rain on our roof sounding like thousands of castanets, driving through small towns and countrysides that we didn't know existed, yet lots of people live there, and seeing a grizzly up close and personal (yeah, that was a mixed blessing).
Will we do it again? In a heartbeat...to different scenes, though. Lessons learned? That sometimes scenic byways are worth it and sometimes not, that we ate out more than expected (the cook--that would be me--needs to plan more varied fare), that you can actually fill up on glorious scenery to the point that you really don't care if you see another great pine tree, that when one is in the boonies, technology can be challenging, that you need to always make sure you lock your car, that we can peacefully coexist in 8'x23' of space, and to always be on the lookout for grizzlies.
Until next time...
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