The Wrap Up!

The End of this Blog.  Thanks to all my readers, I hoped you enjoyed my blathering.

It was a fun run and I recommend that everyone try it once.  A smidgen over 8500 miles saw the job done.  Car put out a message, "Service in 1500 miles or 242 days, which every comes first."  Other than tires the car ran great.  I figured out the cruise controls after a couple of days, which helped.  Call me a spaz, but my eyes couldn't read the button markings without glasses and I never remembered to look after I had stopped. 

I saw some states for the first time and parts of others that I'd not seen.  All good.

Lost Stuff:
    Sun glasses, bought another pair, probably in NC at a golf course
   
    Reading glasses, backup pair broke, bought new ones, they are hanging in there
   
    Golden Age Park Pass vanished, bought another, found the first one, it had worked it's way into the spare tire area of the car, which is two layers down.  
   
    Special Lug nut to take off tires is in Bladen County, NC.  I called them to see if they had it.  "Bring the car in," she said.  I was in New Mexico at that point.  Seems they have a whole drawer full of these kind of nuts.
   
    Golf watch had been taking on moisture and then it lost its glass face and then it got really wet as I could never remember to take it off when showering.  That caused some of the buttons to not work and the display to smear.  I replaced it with the newer version, which was about $50 less than the old one.  Bushnell Neo Ion, if anyone cares and I find it does the job, battery seems to be better than the Neo that it replaced.
   
New Things:
    Saw Arkansas
    Saw Oklahoma
    Saw Central Texas
    Spent a night at Toad Suck Park
   
Parks:
    Saw Canyon De Chelly and Petrified Forest in Arizona - both worth the look.
   
Issues:
    Tires could never be balanced and caused noises and shimmies and psychic damage the whole trip.  Big O was great about trying to fix it (three times), but I've concluded the tires are an issue now.  Probably my own fault as I didn't rotate them the first 20k miles.  I probably should have left them in place.  Volkswagen in Austin charged about $60 for a balance, I'm convinced they never did it.  Volkswagen in Albuquerque was good about removing the locking lug nuts, for which I no longer had the "key."  No Charge for that. 
   
About driving long distances:
    Longest run was 16.5 hours, Albuquerque to Pleasanton; Albuquerque to Austin was a fairly long run too. 
   
    Shortest was probably 300 ish, which seems like a pretty short run to me now.
   
    I couldn't have done it without the audio books - music might have worked, but the books were great. I got through about 5 of them.  Jack Reachers were a favorite; I also liked "The Cairo Affair" as being a bit different.  I would stop them when the driving got complex and back on as soon as I didn't need full concentration.
   
    There are a lot of food/gas stations along the way.  They were all pretty good.  I tried a bunch and didn't find any favorites.  Tip, buy supplies and sodas at the grocery stores and not along the way.
   
    Ice was useful with my cooler and more some when I added a bucket as the ice bags always leaked and food got wet.  Soaked bread will not take peanut butter well.
   
    Cooler would hold ice for a couple of days.  I like to chew it and I bought some plastic cups early on.  My cooler was not expensive.  I got it at Costco for $27 or so.  It's soft sided and I could put it into the passenger foot wells for easy access.  It has the easy access portal on the top and that was useful.

       
Gear Notes:
    Lime Fuel battery was useful - provides 2 amp usb output and enough capacity to charge my phone about 4 times and the tablet 3 times (you don't get both!).
   
    Phone holder worked well until the last day, where the phone got dumped twice.  Not sure what is happening there.
   
    Google Maps did an exceptional job getting me around and avoiding accidents and such. Various apps for finding campgrounds and making reservations were useful.  One of the things I would have liked, pay attention here Google, would be to search for a camp ground 400 miles from my  location, heading west on I-40 (Google is close to being able to do this.  It may be my lack of ability!)  I also would like google maps with mileage radii displayed.
   
    I had a 4 port 2 amp usb plug for the car.  That worked well.  When I ran Renee to the airport, I think I had my phone going and she was charging two other items.
   
    I have a Motorola Moto X Pure and it comes with a "turbo" charger.  Probably just a two amp output, but it worked well for everything - tablet, phone, fan.
   
    I didn't get a chance to use the fan, but I think it would have been very useful.  I'm home now and it's 65 degrees, everywhere else it was 100.
   
    Hatchet was a good buy.  Tent and all the camping gear worked quite well.  I bought a couple of pillows and they were ok, but the way I sleep, I really needed/wanted a normal one and not the inflatables. 
   
    Hammock has some promise, but I only got it up once.  I was going to set it up in Arkansas, but the trees need to be fairly close together.  I will look into extended suspension items to make that more flexible.  The hammock itself was comfortable and its built in bug screen seems a great feature.
   
    I never got to cook as I was usually tired and it was universally hot, usually over 100 and I didn't feel like food at that point in the day.  I'd read and then crash early instead of cooking, cleaning and eating.
   
    Most expensive gas was in Needles, CA, at $3.99 for premium, cheapest was $2.23 in Muskogee, OK.
   
    At the California border they ask about where you came from, fruits, veggies and firewood. 

Factoids:
    Lots of Adult Stores out there and bridge repair going on.  I saw bridge work in all the states.  It was a pain as I had to adjust speed when they closed down a lane for the work.  Where is all the money coming from for those jobs?  Have the Obama shovel ready jobs suddenly come on line?
   
Roads:
    Worst were a toss up between Chicago and California.  I-5 from Bakersfield was an uneven adventure.  That seemed to apply to the right lane for the most part.  The roads going around Chicago to get to Indiana were pot holed and then they have the affront to charge tolls.  Otherwise, roads were pretty good and basically empty.  Traffic was not a big problem until coming up I-5 on the last leg.  I did try to get out of big cities early in the morning.  I left Chicago and Albuquerque at 6 am, which was a good decision.  Though it probably didn't matter much for Albuquerque.
   
I think that's about it.  It was a good experience.  Being alone doesn't bother me much.  There were places I would have enjoyed sharing with Barb, maybe I can coax her out for the next trip.  The camping was comfortable enough for me.  The setup and take down was not too much of a burden.  I'd like to setup and stay in an area for a couple of days.  The Canyon De Chelly area would be a nice place to explore for a couple of days.

It's different to travel alone.  Stop where and when you want; eat what you want.  No need to consult!  But you don't get to share the experiences either.

Golf highlights:  I got to play with Jay in CA and NC - always a competitive treat, with the Bob, Chuck, Diana and Butch in Chicago and I got to play a couple of rounds with my mom in Albuquerque with the ladies 9 hole group -- they were gracious enough to allow me to play with them.  Then John and Paul and Todd in Albuquerque - got to play the 18 holes side of Los Altos, which I liked.

And finally a special thanks to my many hosts:  Jay in Santa Monica, my parents in Albuquerque, brother Ed and Judy in Austin, Ann Marie, who gives great tour, in St. Louis, Nuclear Bob and Elaine in Elgin, and last but not last, the Family Grimes in NC!