All Roads Lead Home

Luckily, we had an uneventful drive up to Albuquerque New Mexico. While the weather in Las Cruces was blustery and cold, I would have liked a little more time there, we enjoyed some amazing pizza at a winery, and the best Malbec wine I've ever had, yes in New Mexico!
We made our way north up to Albuquerque and arrived early afternoon. At this point I knew we were headed back to Florida the next day and I was anxious to drop off the coach and get going.

Good bye for now..

We dropped off the coach, said a tearful good bye to our home on wheels and then headed up to Santa Fe under the threat of snow to stay overnight with Jay's sister. We had a superb dinner with Cindy and Michael and said good night because we were planning to get an early start the next day.
I am a weather watcher and they were predicting several inches of snow for the next day and I wasn't looking forward to traveling in those conditions! Thank goodness we have a Jeep!
As predicted we encountered a lot of snow, in fact, the entire first day we drove through snow all the way to Texas!

Our view for miles and miles and miles..

Jay has stellar driving skills and while it was slow we made it to the Texas border without incident.
We breathed a sigh of relief after this difficult trek and figured this would be the worst day of the 3 day trip. We had a big Texas dinner of Chicken Fried Steak and hit the sheets.
Well, we couldn't have been more wrong... we woke up to the worst ice storm I have ever seen!
I wanted to just call it a day and go back to bed, but, our desire to get home was stronger! We had to pull over a few times and for a few hours we didn't drive over 30 miles per hour. 

Most of the trucks were pulled over!

Note the ice on the windshield.

I just kept thinking we are heading home to 80 degree weather and we were so ready. After a few months of unseasonably cold temperatures it was time for some balmy temperatures and those tropical swaying palm trees.
Finally we arrived in New Orleans about 8 pm. I am embarrassed to admit we had dinner in a truck stop and fell into bed exhausted, no fabulous food like we had a few months earlier it was just eat, sleep and drive! FYI, Truck stops in the "Big Easy" aren't so great!
The next morning we awoke to dismal fog, but at least it was about 60 degrees and the ice and snow was behind us. The fog burned off and before long we hit the Florida border. If you have ever traveled the north/south corridor of Florida it's the longest damn trip you will ever take!  Dozens of small towns and finally the Florida turnpike south of Tampa. By noon it was 80 degrees and sunny.
We arrived home at about 6pm and we were elated to see the waterfront, the park and all our friends in the building where we live.

Our little slice of heaven, for now...

How long were we gone? 285 days!
It was an amazing journey and so now we will sit still for a while, spend time with family and friends and of course plan our next adventure!
In the interim I will be taking a cruise with my grandson and I look forward to reporting on this adventure!  There's some material worth writing about, trust me!

A completely different adventure!

Jay will head out to New Mexico in May to pick up the coach and bring her back to Florida. I will skip that trip but I am anxious to see the coach again and think about our next adventure, the east coast this summer, first stop Myrtle Beach North Carolina!

First Stop