Since Pam and I arrived home, my time has been working the issues around the house. Some are recent issues, like our microwave decided to stop working after nearly a decade of use, and some are projects I’ve needed to get to for some time, but never had the time, cleaning out the garage.

The Roamer is now parked again in storage waiting to be driven. We brought it over to the house yesterday to replace some linens back into the rig since they are now washed and clean. I also had to replace the shower hose, which began leaking on our trip. The part was replaced at the plant while we were in Colorado, but it still leaked because it was not quite the right installation. The new part arrived the other day and I installed it. No more leak – nice.

Lou and Nancy told us a story on how their cook surface was cracked when they bought their used roamer, now named Gus. Turns out the part is expensive to replace so they got a cover for it from another roamer owner who Lou helped out. Cups and dishes can sometimes fly out of the storage shelves when on the back roads, and drop onto the cook surface – not a good situation. With all my free time now, I looked into making a nice wood cover, but it’s amazing how fast the price rockets up when you consider the wood, stain, clamps, etc…

So since I already had a router, I bought a nice wood cutting board and routed out the shape of the cooking glass surface.

This however created a mountain of wood chips in the garage, which lead to the start of the garage clean-out that is still in progress. There is a neighborhood garage sale coming up in a couple of weeks that is driving the finish date for this project. I must say that in cleaning out the garage, I may never have to buy anything again from Home Depot. There are parts, tools and hardware I bought that got squirreled away in the corners of the garage that I forget I had purchased. It’s kind of like Christmas – I didn’t know I owned one of these…..

Obviously, I still have a long way to go.

The jeep project is also in work. Taylor and I started the electrical work, but it was put on hold for the other projects. Once everything around the jeep is cleaned out it will be easier to work on it.

Even with these projects to keep us busy, we are both feeling like we need another Roamer trip soon. One or two trips in November seems very likely, probably into the hills and back country here in AZ. Stay tuned.

Pam and I are now back at home facing a mountain of mail to sort through. Peanut (our cat) and Pam have made up for the separation period and things are getting back to normal.

Here are the stats for the trip….

Total miles traveled: 12,681 miles
Total days on the road: 100 days

Due to the decision to pull the jeep home, we modified our travels on the return leg to arrive home on a more direct route, cutting out nearly 1,000 miles and a few weeks off the original plan. We’ll have to do another travel route to cover the southern US that we missed.

Total number of campsites: 52

35 of these were in National or State Park campsites, which I can say were very enjoyable and a lot less crowded (and less expensive) than the private campgrounds we passed along the way. We did stay at 4 private campgrounds, where the density of folks was greater in these locations. We also stayed with 9 different friends and family along the way, but typically slept in our Roamer since the inside is really comfortable. We only camped 2 nights in the wilderness, driven mostly by our inability to get to a good clearing because of the local tree density along the off-roads we traveled and the lack of local knowledge of good off-road sites. We also spent 2 nights on highway rest areas that were surprisingly restful. Not sure I would stay in a Walmart parking lot yet, but you never know.

We camped in 19 different states and 4 Canadian provinces. Maine and Colorado lead the way with 5 sites each, followed by Montana, South Dakota, Michigan and New York with 4 sites.

Total number of National Parks or National Monuments visited: 25

Total number of micro-breweries visited: 5

The sticker collection in the storage box will give you an idea of the places we visited. Pam’s favorite beer is still Tempe-based Four Peaks Kiltlifter. However, we both enjoyed the Atlantic Blueberry Ale in Maine. I still hold Denver’s Breckenridge Vanilla Porter as the beer for most occasions.

What’s next?

Our future trips are now taking shape, but will include:
1) Death Valley off-road adventures this winter
2) Southern Arizona and New Mexico trek this winter / spring
3) West coast trek up through the redwoods and sand dunes
4) Southern US route to cover the places we missed this trip
5) Alaska and western Canada this summer
6) Newfoundland and Labrador
7) Baja and Yucatan Peninsulas in Mexico

That should keep up busy of the next few years. Tomorrow is sorting the mountain of mail and taking care of household things. Monday, Taylor and I will start working on the ’46 Willy’s to get it street legal.

What a great trip. Stay tuned…….

The trip down through Colorado was very nice. We came down the 285 and 160 through central Colorado. It was some amazing country, most of it over 9,000 ft and plenty of fall colors. Kept thinking of the song as we came rolling down the hill towards Pagosa Springs. We didn’t have any chickens stacked up on top of the rig so I figured we were safe from a run-away truck condition – lol.

Stumbled upon a campsite (after 5 miles of dirt road) near the Arkansas River headwaters rec area that was beautiful with just 3 people camped there, including us. This site is now in the top 5.

Got a good shot of the eastern sky being lit up by the setting sun at the campsite.

We made our way to Mesa Verde NP to see the Pueblo cliff dwellings (and get another passport stamp).

Had to climb up and out of one of the dwellings, which was pretty neat.

The fall colors were out at the NP campground, as well as the deer that just appear out of the trees and the coyotes that were enjoying the full moon.

Drove back into Arizona right next to the four corners area so we had to stop and record our ability to stand in 4 states at the same time.

We’re now at The Orme School so Pam can attend some meetings here. Even though we’re still about 4,000 ft here, it’s warmer than in Colorado, and the trees are just starting to think about not being green. The barnyard got a new gate and the grounds look good.

We should be home later this week. I’ll probably do a wrap-up blog for this trip and discuss the 4 future trips that are in the planning stages right now. Oh-yeah.

We stopped into the Earthroamer shop for our 1 year check-up on the rig. Most of the things were fixed. but they need to finish the remaining items on Monday before we start heading south to Arizona.

The time here gave us an opportunity to stroll the Pearl Street mall in Boulder.

We headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park to camp for the weekend with some friends who also have an Earthroamer.

We did a couple of really good hikes, and the aspen are mostly golden now. Some have already dropped their leaves for the year.

Beautiful place, but it will soon be a lot colder and whiter in the park.

If things go as planned, we should be in Arizona again on Tuesday and home by the end of the week. The first of our 100-day adventures will be complete. What a blast.