Home Again

Wow!!  How time flies when you are having fun.  When last I wrote we had just celebrated the New Year and were in the middle of a wonderful 2 month stay in Tempe Arizona.  It seems like our Arizona visit just flew by and soon we were on the way home to North Carolina.

I might back up just a little to mention that we had a great visit to San Diego.  Our RV park was right on the shore of Mission Bay.  A long time ago, when I had visited San Diego I had thought that this would be a wonderful place to live. Now, however, while the weather is very nice, it has grown into a major city with all the attendant traffic and other big city problems.  We did enjoy visiting the famous San Diego Zoo, old San Diego and Point Cabrillo, where the Spanish got their first look at California.

Next stop was in Yuma, Arizona.  This was basically a pit stop on the road to Tempe, Arizona.  We arrived at our reserved RV spot in Tempe to be very surprised that it was located in the middle of an urban area.  It was near the Arizona State University campus and just across the street from a stop on the light rail system.  We loved the location as is was convenient for just about everything.

The purpose of our stop in Tempe was to be near Derek for a while.  He lives in Fountain Hills which is a very nice suburb northeast of Phoenix.  His mother and her husband live nearby and they graciously invited us to have Christmas dinner with them.  Although you may think that this might be a little awkward we have all moved on over the years and we had a really nice day with them.  We also got together several more times during our visit, including a celebration dinner in honor of Derek's approaching birthday, the night before we left.

While in Tempe we also had the opportunity to visit with one of Grant's friends from 40 years ago when he had worked at MIT.  Ray OConner and his wife Cathy invited us over for dinner and we were able to entertain them in our RV also.  It was wonderful catching up on old times.  Hopefully it won't be 40 years before we get together again.

While in Tempe we attended Tempe First United Methodist Church and were welcomed warmly.  We had wanted to attend a session on "Sharing Your Faith" but the speaker was stuck in a blizzard in Chicago so it was cancelled.  Meanwhile in Phoenix it was in the 70's.

That was the beauty of our time in the Phoenix area.  When we arrived the temperature was in the high 50's and Derek and the locals were complaining about the cold weather (which we thought was wonderful). 
It warmed up some and was in the 70's most of the time we were there.  We enjoyed walking a couple of times each day, both outdoors and indoors in a number of malls there.  We just enjoyed being there for the normally coldest months of the winter.

We did visit an unusual museum.  It was the Musical Instruments Museum, which has not been open very long.  It is in a beautiful, spacious new building and features music from around the world.  It was very interesting and we spent the entire day there.

Alas, all good things must come to an end.  We left Tempe on February 5 headed for Tucson and eventually North Carolina.  We had received a notice that we would have to have the RV inspected and registration renewed by February 29, so we had to plan accordingly.  We stayed in Tucson for several days and spent a day at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.  This is a "living" musem showing off the flora and fauna of the desert.  It was quite impressive.  We also visit the local Spanish mission and checked out the campus of the University of Arizona.

When we hit the road again we headed for Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.  This was probably the most impressive thing we saw on our trip.  Lynn says that this is where I made a "sightseer" out of her.  We entered the caverns in the old entrance and walked steadily downward for about 1 1/2 hours until we reached the location where the elevators brought most people down, which was about 750 feet under ground.  Then we toured the "Grand Room" before taking the elevator back to the surface.  The caverns are strategically lighted at various scenic spots and are just awesome.  Amazingly I was able to take some good pictures down there.

From there we headed for San Antonio, which required an overnite stop on the way.  We stopped in Fort Stockton, Texas and drove in freezing rain the next day between Fort Stockton and San Antonio.  The car looked like an ice burg when we arrived that evening.  This was the worst weather we had on the trip and seemed all the worse since we had had such beautiful weather in Arizona.

Fortunately the weather warmed up in San Antonio and we enjoyed a nice day on the river walk there along with a visit to the Alamo.  We would like to have stayed longer but by now we were on a tight schedule to get back to North Carolina.

We stopped in Houston and didn't get to do any sight seeing  there but did get together with friends that we had been with in Haiti.  It was wonderful seeing them again and being able to discuss our shared experience in Haiti.  Next stop was in Livingston, Louisiana, just east of Baton Rouge.  Here our objective was to experience a Mardi Gras parade as it was just before the beginning of Lent.  Since we had heard about the wild times during Mardi Gras in New Orleans we had decided that we wanted to stay away from there.  We did find a "family" parade in Baton Rouge, which wound around through a neighborhood in the south part of Baton Rouge.  This was a great experience because the streets were narrow and we were within touching distance of the floats.  While the floats weren't the elaborate ones you probably would see in New Orleans it was a fun experience and Lynn was thrilled that she was able to collect a lot of necklaces, just by holding out her hand.

The next day was a long drive through rain all day to Montgomery, Alabama.  When we arrived it was pouring and I got thoroughly drenched making all of the hookups.  Of course the sun was shining beautifully when we left the next morning.  We had a lot of heavy traffic in Atlanta but made it to our planned stop without incident.

The next day, after a leisurly drive through east Georgia and South Carolina we finally made it back to North Carolina.  We stopped in Concord, NC, and planned to have the RV inspected the next morning before we made it on to the Winston-Salem area.  We had supper with David and Kelly at Concord Mills and got up early the next morning to get the RV in for the inspection.  They were having a special price on washing the exterior and cleaning the interior so we decided that would be a good thing.  We left the vehicle and took off for breakfast, then walked the Concord Mills before going back to the dealership.  We though it would take only a couple of hours but we wound up waiting almost 6 hours before it was ready.  We must admit that the RV cleaned up nicely. 

After another couple of hours of driving we arrived at High Rock Lake in Lexington, NC which is where we had chosen to spend our last few days on the road.  As it turned out, I got a pleasant surprise the first morning when I got up, got my coffee and opened the blinds.  Before me was a beautiful panoramic view of the lake which was so still that it was like a mirror.  After a while it became foggy, then eventually clear again.  Probably the most beautiful view from our RV was right back here in North Carolina.

We were staying at High Rock Lake even though it was almost an hour from Winston-Salem.  As it was, it was probably the closest one that was open at that time of the year.   Anyway we made do.  The first night we went to visit Lynn's dad and his wife.  They were happy to see us and we were happy to see them after 8 months on the road.  They were happy that we had made it home safely.

While we were gone we had leased our condominium so in effect we were homeless when we arrived back here.  Through the modern miracle of the internet, we had leased an apartment which we had seen a year earlier.  One of first stops was to visit the apartment complex where we got our first look at the apartment.  It turned out to be very nice and a place that we would probably enjoy living for some time.  Next stop was to arrange for the movers to get our furniture out of storage and into the apartment. 

This done, furniture and boxes into the apartment, and it was time for us to go to work.  It seemed like we would never get through all of the boxes but of course we did eventually.  Now that we have been there for a few weeks it seems like home.  We still haven't decided whether or not to move back into our condominium.  We'll make that decision when it comes time to renew our tennant's lease.

Of course it has been wonderful to go back to our home church and see all of our friends.  Sadly we lost several members who went home to the Lord while we were gone.  They will be missed.

We have also been able to make contact with the children that Lynn cared for over the years.  Caleb Knight had a birthday party at Legoland at Concord Mills so we got to see him, his brother Micah and their sister, Anna  Grace.  Last week Emma Kate Monroe and her brother, Lee, and their mother Anna came to visit.  All of these children are like our surrogate grandchildren.

Speaking of grandchildren, Henry Gilmore Butts made his appearance on March 10, about 3 weeks early.  While he was small there were no problems with the early birth and mother (Marriah) and son (and dad, Chris) are doing  well.  We are so proud of him and will be going to see him with a short visit next month.

I've covered a lot of ground but I think this pretty well catches us up to date.  The Emrick's Epic Journey lasted almost 8 months, covered over 8000 miles and 18 to 20 states.  We thoroughly enjoyed it but are glad to be home again.  Since we aren't planning any more long trips for a while this will be my last posting.  For all of friends over the country please keep in touch.  If we didn't get to see you on this trip we'll try to make it next time.

So long.