Leaving Texas, we set off for to complete our Great RV Adventure!! Just two more stops and we would be home. It was hard for us to wrap our minds around (still is)!!
So, we set out for The Big Easy…and our campground was right in the French Quarter. Was hard to imagine pulling The Beast through those tiny streets, but everything worked out as we realized we were staying just off of I-10 only 1 block from the heart of the city. The French Quarter RV Resort was perfect. We walked and biked through the city & never even started the truck. How convenient!!
In line for beignets at Cafe du Monde…
Caden was street performance worthy!
Our history lesson on the Creole Queen taught us all about the Battle of New Orleans on the Chalmette Battlefield, something we had not studied before. There’s just no better way to learn than on a nationwide field trip!!
Filled with good creole cuisine, we headed east for one last visit in Ft. Walton Beach. Spending time with my grandmother, our aunts/uncles/cousins & a sleepover with MY MOM was just what we needed for our finale!!
Bound for Jacksonville one day ahead of schedule, we drove east. With a tear or two rolling, we talked about our amazing memories and our favorites of everything. With so many memories in a relatively short amount of time, it’s hard to make decisions on favorites. I mean, I just think that it’s impossible to choose a single favorite of anything. This trip was a dream come true. We had huge highs & some huge low points, too. We experienced so much love & so much loss on this trip as well. Words really just cannot express what this trip meant to us. It was a scary thing to do, to stop our lives, drop everything, including Ken’s job & just leave life behind and GO! Last night we talked about a memory of lying in bed in Tampa in 2014 and almost backing out of this whole thing. We cried at the thought and now are just in total awe…humbled by God’s gift of courage to go forward on this adventure. And an adventure it was, truly an irreplaceable one!
Pulling into our driveway last night…
So here’s some stats….
Miles covered in Ken’s truck: 21,699
States visited: 38
Cities we slept in: 71
Favorite State: Oregon (Ken), Oregon/Cali/Colorado (Rach), Cali (Ry), Washington (Caden)
Favorite City: San Diego (Ken), Durango/San Diego (Rach), Quebec City (Ry), Solvang (Caden)
Favorite National Park/Landmark: Glacier (Ken), Acadia/White Sands (Rach), Acadia (Ry), White Sands/Hoover Dam (Caden)
Favorite Hike: Acadia (Ken), Acadia/Cape Flattery in WA (Rach), Acadia (Ry), Acadia (Caden)
Family Favorite Campground: Flying Flags in Solvang
Family Favorite “Signature Dish” AKA home-cooked meal: Kim Thai!!! (Kim Homan’s Thai chicken that we make all of the time & will always remind us of nights in the camper!)
Favorite Memory: “Driving PCH from WA to San Diego” (Ken), “EVERYTHING” (Rach), “Going over state lines and being in 2 states at once all the time” (Ry), “Four Corners, touching 4 states at the same time” (Caden)
So, this brings it all to an end. It’s truly bittersweet. So hard to say goodbye to making memories like these, but we have so very much to be thankful for. Even in our sufferings, we give thanks to God, for without Him, we are nothing! I’m also so thankful to Ken. He has carefully driven us around the country with such skill and careful precision…and given us such a comfort, that we just had to sit back & enjoy the ride. And an amazing ride it has been…thanks for reading & taking the journey along Our Great RV Adventure!!
We love you!!
Ken, Rachel, Rylie, Caden, Rocco & Stella
Ring Tales...our great RV adventure! 