Saying good bye to the Graceland RV camp this morning wasn’t hard. Even though it was directly adjoining the estate property and there were some beautiful motor homes staying there, the place was kind of gross. They even have some trailers there that look like they’ve been there for decades. And the owners aren’t there for recreation, unless you call driving a beat up old tow truck recreation.

We spent the morning getting our “stuff” all packed up, so when we got back to Atlanta, we could drop the motor home off, hop in the truck and go.  As we were working we saw on the TV that this morning on the anniversary of Elvis’s death, Aretha Franklin passed away. She was born in Memphis, near Graceland. The King of Rock and the Queen of Soul.

It was a quite ride from from Memphis to Atlanta. Yogi was sleeping and Lori and I were both reflecting on our trip. We both were impressed with the performance of our motor home, “Thor”. Our friend Chris had posted “Drive it like you stole it!” Well… I took her advice, but despite that, we brought the little motor home back without a scratch and it did the same for us!

So, as I write this, Lori’s at the wheel of my pickup, driving us towards Florida from Atlanta on I-75, and it feels like a limousine. We’re going to stop at a nice hotel in Valdosta where we can take a private shower without our anti fungal slippers on and sleep in an adult sized bed with a really nice mattress and crisp, clean sheets.

Lori and I had always talked about getting a motor home and driving around the country for 6 months or so when we retire. I’m thinking we can probably mark that off the list now. We missed our family, our friends, our co-workers and our cozy home in Bonita.

Not that it wasn’t a great experience… it was a lot of fun, we saw some amazing things and we both learned a lot. For example:

*America is friggin’ BIG! There’s a lot of everything out there and there’s a lot damned NOTHING out there!”

*Everything comes to everybody in a truck and everything comes from somewhere else, therefore there are a MILLION trucks on the road. All. The. Time.

*America is still beautiful in some places, but we’ve ruined a lot of it and we’re still not done. It seems as though we’re collectively kind of stupid or we wouldn’t allow it to happen.

*With very few exceptions, Americas infrastructure is in horrible shape. Yeah, we’ve all heard it and politicians love to talk about it, but… well again, we’re collectively kind of stupid or we would invest in ourselves and this great country.

*I have great people working for me at Nelson Marine Construction. They’ve all done a great job and worked really hard while we’ve been away. They are awesome!

*Bonita Springs is a great place to live. People complain a lot about things there, but you know… they can just shut it! They need to go for a little drive around the country… It’s awesome in Bonita!

*Egg McMuffins are delicious and way under rated. And those biscuits!!!

*My wife is awesome, smart and a great partner. She’s a looker too! And even after 2 weeks in a small box together… I think she still likes me!! Whoop!

Traveling ends up making me appreciate where I live and the people who are in my life and they also say that it expands your mind.

Tomorrow we go home. To family, friends and work, But who knows where the road may take us.

Lori just asked me where we’re going next summer.