Where is Jack, Day 159?

This is our last night of camping on this trip. It's hard to believe. Time has flown by. It's sort of bittersweet. We're anxious to see the humans we love, but we hate Atlanta, the midwest (except for the Mississippi), and the east.

Nancy had a difficult drive, today. Lots of traffic at 70 mph. There was an accident in Nashville which caused a back up, then let all the trucks and cars go at one time. When we first started out this morning, Nancy was sleepy. So, we stopped at a rest stop, she walked me and got a coke out of the trailer to see if the caffeine would help. She was determined to get as close to Atlanta as possible. No sense in wasting more than one night's rate at a campground since we are so close. Gas got more expensive after Kentucky.

The people at this campground are very nice. They came out to meet me, gave me treats, and told Nancy that they had a nature trail I might like. I wonder how they knew? Nancy pulled into the site, and before she did anything, she took me on the trail. I loved every minute, but I could tell that the heat was getting to her. When we got back from our walk, I stayed outside with her while she dumped the tanks. I love to stay outside the camper and lay around watching things so she let me stay as long as I wanted. It was almost dark when she called me in. I'm tired, too, so I jumped up on my bed and I'm ready to sleep.

Nancy misses her sweatshirt weather and wide open spaces, the mountains, the rivers, the lakes, and the forests, and of course, the coast in Oregon. The only reason we're back here is family and friends. I can't wait to see Susie. Nancy said she keeps saying that she's going to take me for a lot of walks.

We've had quite an adventure, Nancy and me. We were always close, but we are really close now. We're glad we got to spend this time, together. We saw so many wonderful places, met a lot of people, and it was nice to have something to occupy our minds all the time. Rich and Lizzie were never far from our thoughts. There were so many things we wished they had seen with us. I thought about Lizzie every time I went for a walk, but mostly when there was a stream. She would have loved it here. There's a lake. I know where Lizzie would have been. I don't like swimming, as much, without Lizzie. Nancy said she finds it so hard to believe that Rich never knew about the truck and trailer. She wonders if he would have enjoyed driving it. She knows, for sure, that it would have been a lot cleaner!! She also knows that he would not have been happy in the trailer. He liked the comforts of home when he traveled, and a little space to move around in, especially the shower. I always knew what she was thinking when we were watching a particularly beautiful sunset, sitting by the ocean, and all the beautiful things that are the west.

The trailer needs so many things fixed, at this point. Nancy said, we're better off than she thought we would be. She expected to be towing just four wheels back into Atlanta. (Written after returning home): Nancy and I took the trailer up to Wild Willie's, a(n) RV fixit place a couple of months after being at home. Our friend, Marie, went with us. We thought we were going to be able to show her around Dahlonega, but we ran out of time. While we were there, one man took me out in back and played with me while another man went over the list of things that Nancy wanted checked or fixed. They all got hysterical when they discovered that the air conditioner had never been screwed/bolted onto the roof on the trailer, neither was the oven door and a few other things. They were amazed that we had been all the way out to the west coast over mountains and bumpy roads and hadn't lost the air conditioner (especially). The reason Nancy was having it checked was because when she was camping near her friend, Patricia, it rained very hard and it poured in through the A/C. Well, duh, that's because it was moved over 5 inches on the roof! That kind of tells you what great weather we had on our trip.  Funnier still, is that Nancy, Lizzie, and I had made many trips in the trailer-as far away as Virginia and West Virginia. How lucky were we!! Nancy said, "I hope Rich and Lizzie ducked when we went under low branches and tunnels!" I really hope we get to go out west, again.

We wonder how we're going to feel about a big house. Ugh, says Nancy, the dust will be piled up. But, she'll have her own shower, her washing machine and dryer, her couch, and the TV. Back to reality.

It's been fun telling you, who have read my blog, about our trip. Thinking back, there are so many things I didn't write about because we filled the days with so much that I would have had to have written a book, and I almost always wrote at night when I was ready for sleep, like I am now. Goodnight to all.

(Some how I'm missing either part of a post or a whole day. We met Patricia, a friend of ours, near St. Louis, and she and Nancy went to lunch. We had planned to spend the day with her and Teddy (my friend), but it was raining so hard that the campground was flooded. Nancy and Patricia decided that a little bit of time was better than no time. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see Teddy.


Nancy thought, a few months back, that she would come down through Bandy Creek on the way home, but it didn't shake out that way. It would have been nice to see all the WACs we know, and to meet the new ones. Then, she thought maybe she could take a ride back up, but we hit a truck tire south of Chattanooga on I75, and so the trailer needs to go in to get checked, and for work. It should have been in shortly after arriving home, but we've been in somewhat of a funk since getting home, and Nancy hasn't had much ambition to do anything.)