Final recap of Summer Vacation 2010

Day 7 & 8 of our Summer Vacation 2010 were spent primarily riding in a vehicle. We bid my parents an emotional good-bye, leaving Grizzly RV Park at 7:30 in the morning in the Rolling Turd on Thursday, August 5th. We got plenty of road time driving 650 miles straight through from West Yellowstone, MT to Mandan, ND. We camped our final night in our rental at Fort Lincoln State Park, but didn't pull into the location until 9:00 PM. Luckily, there were spots available and we had time for a nice hot shower before turning in for the night. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to actually explore or enjoy the park. It is amazing how tired we all were and we hadn't even done anything all day except be in the vehicle.

We got up early on Friday morning (August 6th) to get our gear organized and make sure the RV was cleaned inside and out. We returned it to RV Rental feeling very bad about the trim we had broken on the slide on the morning of Day 2. {It has been three weeks and we are still waiting to find out the replacement costs for it.} It took almost a 1/2 hour just to move all of our stuff from the RV into the van. That is when we found out that our van had gotten hail damage from a nasty storm back on August 2nd. Good thing for insurance, but bad thing for overall appearance and the deductible. We thought we had gotten everything, but about 15 minutes after leaving, we got a call that our Kodak pocket video camera was found under the driver's side seat. Ooops - back to the RV shop we went.
It sure seemed like our "stuff" had grown exponentially on the trip. The van was packed to the brim and we looked like the Clampetts... minus the rocking chair on the roof. It was a long drive from Bismarck back to Fergus Falls. We loved our vacation, but we missed the comfort of our home and most importantly OUR.BEDS! I felt like I could sleep for a week! Many thanks to HH for checking up on our house and keeping the flower and garden tended while we were away.

I have to do a little share about Miss Bella, our accessory. Here is what we learned on our vacation: Bella is not a camper. Bella doesn't like to ride in dad's BAT truck. She huddled under the sleeper seat (a.k.a hidey-hole) every time she had to ride in it. Bella won't eat when she is in a new environment or feeling displaced. Bella is terrified of statues of bears. Bella chews on things when she is nervous. And as neurotic as our Miss Bella is with us camping, she is 500 times worse when we try to kennel her. She was the most excited of all when we got home.

This is one of my favorite sweatshirts that Bella chewed three holes into sometime between day 2 and day 3 of the vacation. I'll forever need to wear a t-shirt with it, but can't part with it because my besties, Kathy & Sherri have autographed the back of it.

All in all, it was a fantastic summer vacation with lots of memories, stories and adventures to reflect back on for many years to come.