THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

“There’s no place like home.  

There’s no place like home”.

                 - Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz

September 10-11: The 900 mile drive to Aiken, South Carolina to visit our good friend, Ernie Levinson, as we head for home.  Despite listening to a book on CD, there is nothing more boring than long-distance driving on the Interstates with no purpose except to get there, wherever “there” happens to be.  We spent the obligatory night at a Walmart near  Nashville, TN, where, guess what, nothing was different except the Nashville skyline on the horizon.  We pulled into Ernie’s around 5:00 PM, enough time for a good visit despite our pavement addled brains.  The hot steamy weather was an excellent forecast of the hotter, steamier weather to come once we hit The Sunshine State.  

September 12:  After a final 350 mile push, we pulled into our driveway in Florida, all smiles.  The house was still standing, no trees had fallen down, everything looked pretty much like we left it last April 11.  The humidity was about 110% and it was 90 degrees, but home is home.  As much as we were dog-tired, travel-weary and ready to pack it in, it was an expected letdown to turn off the ignition for the last time and not have a new place to see tomorrow.   

It’s hard to believe, but this is my last entry.  It has been a lot of work and a lot of fun putting together these many pages and I praise all of you who have suffered through them.  Of course, I mostly did it for Gale and myself, since we now can’t remember half of what we did on this epic quest.  It’s kind of like the people who now believe they actually went to Woodstock in 1969, but all they did was see the movie.  For us,  believing we drove 23,496 miles and that we traveled to the farthest drivable point of North America and back is nothing short of staggering.   Did we really do that?  YES!  Did we have any arguments?  YES!  Are we still talking to each other?  YES!  Not only did we survive, but so did our relationship, better than ever.  On the other hand, Gale just gently suggested that I go take a trip somewhere, by myself.  

There are some interesting totals for the trip, because I know that’s what is on everyone’s mind (right).  So here are some figures:

Trip length: 154 days, 23,496 miles, plus flights to Nome and St. Paul Island in the Pribilofs in Alaska, including 700 miles driving in the Nome area in a rental car.

Gallons of diesel fuel used: about 1200

Cost of diesel fuel: $3,272

Lowest price paid for diesel: $1.75/gallon, Louisiana

Highest price of gasoline: $5.05/gallon, Nome, Alaska

Cost of fuel in Canada: Canada dollars per litre = incomprehensible

Albie’s estimated average mileage: 19-20 mpg.

Cost of camping and lodging: $4,263, $3,027 of which was for our lodging in Nome and St. Paul Island.

Miscellaneous expenses (park admissions, bus passes in Denali NP, Nome car rental, tips, repairs and       tires for Albie, Canada National Parks Pass): $5,468

Number of bird species seen on trip: 473

Gale’s lifers: 86, for a life list of 616 in the ABA area

Sam’s lifers: 8, for a life list of 762

Sam’s life photographs: 11, for a total of 747

Photos taken: somewhere over 30,000

Mammal species seen: 63

Road kill species (all inclusive): 48

Movies seen during trip: 2 DVDs plus Kubo and the Two Strings (twice)

GALE AND SAM, DENALI NATIONAL PARK, ALASKA

With that, dear readers, I sign off. “With a hearty hi-ho Albie, away!”  (with the 1812 Overture in the background, of course)