Day Sixtyeight - Aug 19, 2004

Our last day on the road began in the smoky Porcupine Creek Campground. While it sure seems like the interior of the bus would be just as smoky as the air outside, when we opened the door we were hit with a smell like a concentrated camp fire. We got on the road south quickly, just wondering when we might break out of the smoke. It got slightly better when we climbed up to the Richardson Highway from Gakona, but socked back in after Glennallen. We climbed past Eureka, zipped past the Matanuska Glacier, and wound along the Matanuska Valley to Sutton. The smoke abated gradually, but we still couldn't make out the Chugach Range from Wasilla. The high side of an incredibly long day of driving yesterday was a very short day of driving today and we pulled into Anchorage a little after noon. We pulled into our back yard to see that our friends, family and neighbors had done a better job of caretaking our flowers, lawn and home than we ever seem to be able to. It goes without saying that we were very excited to be home.

Brian spent the last bit of the trip working the spreadsheets, so here are some numbers. We drove exactly 17,000 miles in 68 days, for a nice round average of 250 miles a day. The bus consumed 975 gallons of gas, fed from 107 gas stations, at an average price of 2.13 a gallon. Of the three categories we tracked, gas was the most expensive item, with repairs taking a slight lead over lodging for second and third place respectively. Theresa seems to have completely overcome any hesitation with regard to driving the bus and drove 34% of the miles. This percentage is artificially low because she tends not to drive the bus when it is having mechanical issues and this is not an unheard of condition for the bus. The bus required six visits to the mechanic, which was roughly the same as last trip, but only one tow which was a considerable improvment. We traveled through 28 states and 3 Canadian provinces. We visited 13 national parks and probably a few more state parks than that.

Most importantly we got a chance to see and visit (too briefly) a lot of good friends and close family that we haven't seen in a long while and we are very grateful for the hospitatility all of them provided us. We are also incredibly grateful to the friends and family that kept an eye on our home in Anchorage for the two months we were on the road. Finally, we very much appreciated the emails from folks that followed along with us, it's always comforting to hear a familiar voice when you are on the road.

Take care!

Brian and Theresa