Epilogue (9/11 – 9/24)
We spent a few days cleaning and packing up in Everett, along with a couple side trips to visit friends.
Thanks so much to Tom and Susan Elliott for watching over the truck and trailer for the last three months. We had a fun visit with Tom, Susan, and Tom’s parents Monday evening. When we returned to the boat after dark three seals had hauled out onto the dock before our slip. They sort of growled at us and weren’t eager to move. We walked slowly around them, but they were not nearly as cute as during the daytime.
After loading the boat Tuesday morning, we spent a little over an hour scrubbing almost a month’s worth of growth off the hull before hitting the road.
We took an indirect route home via Woodland, CA to visit our son and daughter-in-law for a few days. From there we elected to veer off I-80 past Reno and take US-50 through Nevada. “The Loneliest Road” is stark, beautiful, and not entirely lonely. We spent the night in Eureka and took Nevada Highway 93 north at Ely, from which we rejoined I-80 to retrace the route back to St. Louis.
One near miss: In Eureka, NV, I noticed that both starboard trailer tires were very unevenly worn. From Ely I called a few tire shops around Salt Lake City. Discount Tire in West Valley City (west side of SLC) had two Goodyear Endurance tires in the right size. We arrived there at 4:30pm and were on the road with two new tires by 6:30.
Other stops on the way home were Walmart in Evanston, WY, Cabelas’s Campground in Sidney, NE, and Walmart in Chillicothe, MO. We needed to plug in and charge the batteries every other night to keep the refrigerator running for our entire drive home. You see, the boss brought back bergies from the Margerie, Johns Hopkins, Reid, and Le Conte Glaciers as souvenirs and gifts. The small freezer section remained cold enough and all survived intact.
Final Stats for the geeks:
Total Boat miles: 3237
Total motor hours: 404
Fuel purchased: 1070 gallons (actual fuel used is at least 1130, since we haven’t refilled)
Overall statute miles per gallon: 2.86
Miles driven: 5314
Fuel used: 537 gallons
Cumulative mpg: 9.9
