It's been 2 weeks since we returned home from our adventure. We got back just in time for our granddaughter Julia's 12th birthday party and it was great to see family again. We also got the news that Cindy is pregnant, so we will get to be grandparents again! Jimmy took great care of the house while we were gone, kept it very clean, and even cleaned the refrigerator. It took us a couple of days to get through all the mail and the 9 boxes we shipped back while we were on the road.
      The first thing we noticed on our first night home was that our 20 year old mattress was a lot more uncomfortable we remembered after sleeping in the various hotel room beds . So uncomfortable that a few days later we had to buy a new mattress. Luckily it was delivered the next day, and we both sleep much better now. Both the Subaru and the truck had dead batteries when Cindy came to borrow the truck last month. When we tried, the truck started right up but the Subaru was dead again. Even after an overnight recharge, the Subaru battery never recovered. Had to buy a new battery.
     It took 3 days to clean the road grime off the bike, and somehow on close examination, the windshield got damaged on the trip. Something chemical attacked the windshield coating so I ended up having to buy a new one.    Probably one too many cleanings with unknown water on the road. The old one was Plexiglass and prone to scratches and chemical attacks. The new one is Lexan and scratch and chemical resistant.

     Statistics: We were gone from May 24 to Sept 5 for a total of 105 days. When we left the bike had 15,673 miles on it . When we returned the bike had 35,576 miles. So we covered 19,903 miles and 26 states on this trip. We went to 25 National Parks, 7 National Monuments, 11 Caves, 4 Train Rides and 4 Boat Rides. We stayed at 67 different hotels. We bought 130 t-shirts - 80 for me and 50 for Jody.

     Cost: What did it all cost? The short answer is about $30K or $284 per day. Here's how it broke out:
                           
Hotels:                               $14,570 or $139 per day
Dining:                                 $5,402 or   $51 per day
Fuel:                                      $1,431 or   $14 per day
Admission/Fees/Supplies:   $4,061 or   $39 per day
Motorcycle Tires/ Service:        $1,138 or $11 per day
T-Shirts/ Souvenirs:                  $3.166 or $30 per day

     We used Hotels.com for most of the trip. We would typically book a couple of days ahead so we could remain flexible and still be able to find a room . Every hotel had it's own rewards program, but Hotels.com was the easiest as they had almost every hotel, and it was just a straightforward "Stay 10 Nights, Get 1 Night Free". We typically tried for a $100 per night rate plus tax, that got us into places like Comfort Inn, and Best Western, etc. We tried to stay away from the really cheap hotels, or the really expensive ones. This all worked except for the big cities. Seattle, San Francisco, even Cody were just a lot more expensive. I'm sure we could have saved some cost, the t-shirts were a little ridiculous, but we came in right about the budget we had planned.

    Final Thoughts: This was really the trip of a lifetime. Ever since I was a kid watching Route 66 on television, or my cousin David traveling cross country in a van in the 60's, I have always wanted to just travel cross-country and visit all these places I've seen either in books or on TV. Once I started riding a motorcycle, it was obvious that a motorcycle was the way to go . Jody and I did a couple of trips when we first met, but just didn't have the time for a long motorcycle trip until I retired. On the bike, we felt much more a part of the experience rather than looking at the world out a car windshield. The destinations were all wonderful, but the motorcycle is what made the journey so memorable. A lot of the difficult mountain roads would have been fun in a car, a real pain in an RV, but were spectacular on the motorcycle.
     The trip was a lot more work than I really anticipated. We typically woke up at around 6:00AM, by the time we got up, showered, packed up and ate breakfast we were on the road around 8:00. If we traveling to another hotel that day, we would always pack before breakfast so we would be ready to go when we got back to the room. We never turned on the television for the entire trip. Some of it was to see if we could do it, and mostly there just wasn't any time. We typically got to the hotel at about 6:00PM, ate dinner, and then came back to the room. We never did much at night unless we were staying somewhere for a couple of days. When we got back to the room, we would download the pictures from the camera, plan the activities for the next day, book the next hotel room, check the map and the route, and finally write the blog for the days activities. This usually took until 10:00 though some nights I would be writing until past midnight.
     We were really amazed on a daily basis. Everything just seemed bigger and more beautiful than we imagined. Our favorite city had to be San Francisco. We stayed in the Castro District and had plenty of time to walk around and take in lots of the sights. The people there really seemed to enjoy living there. Our second favorite city was Seattle. It just seemed so much fun there, and the people were especially nice. All of the Pacific Northwest was the most beautiful. We did not like the Southwest. Arizona and New Mexico were just to hot and barren. Southern Utah was the biggest surprise. I don't think many people live there, but it's sort of one National Park or Monument after another, all of it very beautiful.
     Everywhere, except the Southwest, was much colder than we expected. Maybe we've been in Florida for too long, but most places were cold in the morning, and did not warm up until around noon. The hottest part of the day would be at 5:00. We learned to take the afternoon tours if water was going to be involved. The west coast beaches were really cold. In July in Oregon and Northern California, it would only be in the 60's or 70's as the high for the day. But if you went inland by 10 miles or so, the temperature would go up by 20 or 30 degrees in just a few miles.
     The people we met were much nicer than we expected. We made an effort to talk to people when the occasion came up and met some really nice people. Especially in the National Parks, the kind of people who go to the National Parks are helpful, and most would take the time to point out the best places. People were polite, patient and helpful and rarely rude. We were very surprised and it helped restore some of our faith in humanity. The motorcycle was an attraction, and people would come up, were interested in our trip, and gave great suggestions of places not to miss.
     The tone did change a little in August as most Americans were winding down their summer vacations, and the Europeans arrived. I'm sure some of the problem was the language barrier, but most of the Europeans were active among themselves but avoided contact with others. Maybe it was just a cultural thing. We did meet a number of Australians who were renting Harleys and they were always fun.
     I think the trip was a couple of weeks too long. Our energy level started to fall off at the end of August. We did very well keeping up with the excitement for most of the trip, but at the end of August, we seemed to get up a little later, and had a little tougher time getting going. I'm sure we'll do another motorcycle trip, but it will be shorter.
     We're leaving tomorrow for a 7-day cruise in the Caribbean. We plan on doing nothing but relaxing, reading, and eating. We were so active for the entire summer, we need some time to just unwind and relax. It should be great fun! I think I have made a successful break from working life to retired life. This trip may not have done a lot to help me figure out what to do with myself in retirement, but it has sure put my working life behind me. I barely remember my day-to-day activities from work and I really don't miss it at all. We are both looking forward to life in retirement!
     I'd also like to thank everyone who followed the blog along the way. We visited so many places that without a written record, it would all end up as just a blur. I hope you enjoyed our descriptions and maybe it will give some of you an interest in visiting some of these places. You won't be disappointed. We really only had about 1 day on each of the National Parks, but most of them had plenty to keep us busy for a week or more if we had the time and stayed on site.

     This blog site has an option to turn this blog into a hardcover book which we plan to do when we return from the cruise. If anyone has any final comments, please post them as a comment in the blog and not as a Facebook comment so they can be included in the the printed book.