Day 97: Home!

We woke up not knowing it, but today would be our last day on the road. We had planned to stay overnight near Cannon Beach tonight, but rain had moved in overnight and wasn’t letting up, making another beach stop somewhat pointless. It was crazy–once we all talked about driving home instead of another night on the road, our morale totally changed. Everyone was giddy with excitement and great moods the rest of the day.

We stopped at Costco to pick up some stuff we’d ordered earlier and get a final Costco lunch meal. Rob took the boys in to grab the lunch, so it was my first time in the RV driving alone to get gas. They were in the parking lot waiting for me as soon as the tank was filled, so it was fun to drive to pick them up before we parked for lunch.

Along the drive Nicholas noticed some weigh stations just off the side of the road. We passed the first one and then realized it looks like you can just pull up and get a weight, even though it was closed. I accidentally drove past a second one, but at the third one we finally stopped. Knowing how much the RV weighs fully loaded was something we should have done at the beginning of the trip, not the end. Turns out with full fuel we are slightly overweight–oops. We were about 18,500 pounds vs. a gross weight 18,000. We were pretty heavily loaded today, so we think we were below gross nearly all the time.

There is something symbolic about entering Washington over the Columbia river in the rain. It is December, after all, but with this weather we also knew we were back in our home state.

The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful. I later had to apologize for my panicked request to get all the fog off the side window when it started to get cloudy. It had hit me hard that at nearly 10,000 miles of driving I hadn’t had an accident, and I wasn’t about to have one merging from I-5 to 405 at rush hour, simply because I couldn’t see out the mirrors.

We pulled up to our house at 6:30 p.m. and it felt so good. The boys went racing into the house to play with LEGO, while Rob and I got the car disconnected and the RV parked into the driveway. We had hot dogs for dinner, but this time they were cooked on our stovetop instead of a campfire.

After dinner they jumped to play with their Nerf guns and remote control car, which I think is what they saw first. When offered a shower or bath, they both opted for a bath to celebrate being home.

We still can’t believe we pulled this whole trip off, and we couldn’t have done it without the support of friends, family, and neighbors. We are very grateful and will have incredible memories to last forever from this 97-day family adventure.