Epilogue 1

This morning I am prepping for the drive back to Phoenix. That is Mapquesting the route (it should be I-10 all the way, but I-10 gets confused around Houston in Texas), paying this month's bills, and totaling up the mileage from the ride.

Mileage total for the Ride of a Lifetime stands at 2719.4 .  That includes our little detours, my wrong turns, and all the rest. I still can't get over what a great ride it has been, and can't wait to start planning the next one.

I will run up another post later reference the return trip and some of the other stuff that happened on this trip. But for now, got to pay the bills and get ready to go home.

We left St. Augustine at 0700 Phoenix time (1000 local time) on Saturday the 2nd. I had told father that I planned on driving straight through from Florida to Arizona, and that he might be more comfortable taking a flight back. I even checked the flights out of Jacksonville and found  him a flight - 6 hrs, home (in Phoenix) by 3PM the second, under $200, and an extra day to drive back  to Colorado, because he is very worried about getting back to vote. He decided that he would  rather ride back  with us - 15 to 17  hours in the car, no stopping, no meals, just snacks and drinks in the car.

But he decided that he wanted to ride back with us. This is the same old fart that complained to me for 5 weeks because he had to sit in the car driving for us and it stiffened up his knees too much. So we loaded up the car and took off for the return. I stopped every 2 to three hours for gas breaks or potty stops. So father, playing the martyr and throwing his best guilt trip at me, rode in the front passenger seat and refused to eat or drink the whole trip. He also refused to fasten his seatbelt and wouldn't recline his seat to nap. Acting just like a spoiled little baby, he finally about 3 AM, demanded that we had to stop and sleep for a few hours. I told him that we had discussed this, we weren't stopping, and I had offered to let him take a plane. He was delivered to his home in Scottsdale at 2:30PM and we said good-bye. He could have been there almost 24 hours earlier if he wasn't being a pain again.