Cross Country Journey Complete

I arrived in Shoreview around 9:30pm this evening (about an hour ago).  It is nice to be on familiar ground.  To know all the highways, and be able to turn off the GPS.  The latest journey has ended, and now the next one will start tomorrow.

This morning I was woken up by all the traffic and other various noises around 4am-something, and finally got out of bed a little after 5am.  Had breakfast, cleaned up a bit, and dropped off the trailer.  ATC had it for a couple hours, took care of all the repairs, and had me back on the road by about 11am eastern time. They not only fixed the gas strut on the window, they also replaced one of the metal panels where the strut had scratched it.  I didn’t even mention that, but they just went ahead and made the whole thing like new.  That was very nice of them.

The drive from Indiana back to MN was uneventful.  The White Knight is averaging 9.something MPG with the camper and towing the trailer, which isn’t awful, but isn’t great either.  Much of the day I was battling headwinds too.

It’s been quite a journey.  I left on March 9th and got back late on April 4th.  Paul and I left Breckenridge in 14°F (above) weather on March 12th, and started heading towards Vegas.  Made a stop in Palisade, CO to look at some fancy Miatas, then started noticing some serious oil temperature problems.  The next day we limped along at 55mph for the entire day getting into Vegas.

A local shop was able to get me in, and after taking in the strip at Vegas, Paul wisely took a plane ride home.  I stayed around for a couple more days in an apartment/hotel that needed almost daily repairs, and my truck was done early.  Picked up the camper (why not, it’s there and waiting for me), and took off for Quartzsite.  Spent a lovely evening in Quartzsite, picked up the trailer, then a second evening somewhere I can’t even remember, and then by the time I got to Phoenix, the truck died.

A tow to BulletProof Diesel headquarters, a whole ton of work done on warranty, and 7 hours later, I was back on the road.  Within a couple days, I was in Tyler TX, only an hour later than planned even with a week’s worth of delays.

My parents had a list of houses they were interested in, that list was quickly whittled down to a couple, and one was chosen.  Thus far everything is in order for taking possession of the house on April 30th.  It’s currently April 4th, and there’s a whole ton of work I need to do before then.  At this point, I’m thinking I won’t get everything done before the 30th, and I’ll be a bit later getting down to Tyler.  We’ll see how it goes.

And somewhere in there I managed to get new tires on the truck too.  And other random projects (oven heat distribution) (rewire batteries/solar).  I actually forgot about those while writing up this review.  I’ve been busy.

Shoreview is really quiet.  It’s so nice to have a quiet spot for a change.  I had a couple nights of real boondocking on the journey, and I hope to do more of those.  Those nights were really peaceful as well.  Being hooked up to the grid is nice too, with its unlimited and cheap power and natural gas, it’s easy to live like a king.  Tomorrow I’ll be working a bit, then it’s time to start on all kinds of chores and cleaning.

I was speaking with my mother recently, and she mentioned that when she got back, it was “back to the grind” of the usual activities.  I realized I don’t have a “normal” day anymore.  Or, at least it’s been long enough that it doesn’t feel like I do.  I imagine after settling into Tyler and getting into a route, I’ll start to have a “normal” concept again.  I actually don’t mind the lack of structure and absence of routine.  I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts on that in the future, perhaps when things calm down.  But by then I might be back into a routine again… we’ll see.

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