Almost home – Wachs Across America

We left Twin Falls this morning at 8:30…not too bad for us! We had a little over 300 miles to go to get to Green River, WY where we were going to overnight before making it the rest of the way home. The drive was pretty uneventful and so I took the opportunity to reflect on all the adventures we’ve had together with Ava and The Beast.
196 days of adventure to be exact. Did you hear that? One hundred and ninety six days!!! That blows my mind! We’ve been to forts, caves, deserts, planetariums, star parties, beaches, presidents houses, battle sites, monuments, memorials, parks, capitol buildings, mountains, rainforests, cities, skyscrapers, estuaries, islands, rivers, canyons, arches, bridges, boats, kayaks, ferries, plantations, towers, lakes, zoos, museums and probably more. I’ll have to figure out the exact number but we’ve driven close to 20,000 miles in The Beast, the majority of which he was pulling Ava. At about 10 miles to the gallon and high diesel prices….well, you can do the math but don’t tell me the dollar amount please. Because, it doesn’t matter. Those 196 days exploring this country with my family was worth more than any amount of money.

We arrived in Green River at about 3:00, unhitched, plugged into shore power and fired up the AC to escape the scorching heat. After cooling down a bit we went out to check out the Green River. We found a town park on the banks of the river that also had a splash park to help cool off. The kids and Sheba all enjoyed the river water a lot. We topped off the Beast with Diesel for the last leg of our journey tomorrow and went home for dinner. After dinner Sheba got a bath and a haircut and we all got ready for bed…our last night sleeping in Ava.

I recall the last few days of our long trip in 2016 as we were nearing home and how badly I wanted to stay on the move. Returning to a stationary life was not appealing at all and I couldn’t fathom getting rid of the rig. But this time it is different. I’m actually really looking forward to getting back home and I’m ok with the idea of selling Ava and The Beast. They were a great tool for making memories but we don’t need to hang on to the tools to keep the memories. And, we’re not done traveling. Sure, we’re done traveling with Ava and The Beast but we’ll still travel. I think we’ll work on some overseas adventures next and maybe some shorter road trips using AirBnB. And who knows, maybe we’ll get a camper again someday…but given our shorter trips it will definitely be much smaller and it will be completely off grid capable!!

Thank you Lord for 195 amazing days of exploring your creation with this family of mine. Thank you for 195 days of safety. I pray that the 196th day is just as safe as the others and that we arrive home safe and sound tomorrow. Amen.