End of a Great Trip

I was going to call this blog entry something like Home Sweet Home, but I don't want to give the impression that it was sweeter than any other day of our trip.

The big highlight of the day was meeting our friends Dave and Wally at Peace River Seafood in Punta Gorda. We pigged out on a couple of dozen huge crabs, I think all were larger than 8" point to point and they were heavy and sweet! Cold beer made it a perfect meal, although we had to go to the nearby Dairy Queen for the requisite ice cream finish. And so, our trip ended as it began, with a belly full of crab! How could life get better?

We rode the last 60 miles together down I-75 to Exit 111 and to our house where a mountain of mail waited. We were pleased to find our dwelling was devoid of squatters, human or animal, and everything worked except for my car battery and two UPS batteries. Not bad for an 83 day trip.

The ending odometer reading was 56,090 for a total trip of 8,739 fun filled miles. We felt a bit sad it had ended. Fun was had every day, even the ones spent in the hospitals. Our costs averaged about $180 a day when we were not paying Blue Cross Blue Shield co-pays. I suspect our insurance coverage will cover all but the deductibles. Depreciation on the trailer may add another thousand or so to the real cost. All things considered, we got our money's worth for an experience we will carry to our graves. I just wish our budget had allowed for one of those beautiful stuffed jackalopes.

Sunday we rewarded the Honda for its great service with a day of rest, and a thorough washing. An oil change and waxing will soon follow. I found a few cracked parts and some missing plastic, a legacy of the Wyoming accident and I'll order replacements this week. I like the bike to function and look like new, and it will. I've owned many motorcycles in my life but none come close to the comfort and reliability of this Gold Wing. The new ones are even better and it's rumored that the 2011 model will be made in Japan. That will probably set the new high water mark for quality motorcycle cruising and if we hit the lottery, I may be tempted to revisit the idea of a new bike. I'm due to hit anytime now. For years I've instructed Theresa to buy a lotto ticket whenever it gets above $200 million. So far, no hits. Be we are optimists and with our gaming investments approaching the $50 mark I'm getting ready to receive our funds, making plans, spending a little in advance, I mean, how long can it take? If any of you readers have any influence with the lotto gods, please put in a good word for us. I don't think anyone enjoys spending money more than we do, therefore we are deserving, and if this unfruitful trend continues another 10 years, we may squander another $50 on loosing tickets. I'd hate to do that, I hope we break the trend soon. For now, I'm more than happy with the 1993 mount. In Gold Wing terms, 56,000 miles is in the prime of it's life!

The trailer has been returned to new condition with a factory replaced tent and a unique accessory tray I had fabricated in Wyoming. The tray is home for two gallons of extra fuel, a 6 pack cooler, (sodas of course), and space for trash, oil bottles, and miscellaneous stuff. Welded up of diamond plate aluminum, it is light weight, functional and looks good.

Other than Daytona's Biketober Fest this October, we don't have any plans for the trailer for the next couple of years, so if any readers want to make us an offer on it, we could use the garage space.

Our next big trips will be a cruise to Hawaii in March and we plan to fly to Australia in 2011. We would like to re-visit Asia, Thailand and Vietnam in particular, and that would check the major travel items off our bucket list. We have a short, one week cruise to Fantasy Fest this October. That will help ease the shock of going back to work a bit.

This is actually a great time to be back in Naples and back to work. Microsoft will release Windows 7 on October 22nd and Intel has recently released a crop of much faster processors. That will make my computer building a lot more fun than it has been for the last couple of years. I'm planning to build our own next PC this month and for a geek like me, there's a wonderland of cool stuff available. I'm betting tech stocks will rally when the pent up demand for non-Vista PCs hits the market. Microsoft (MSFT) hovers at $24.65 a share today and Intel, (INTC) is at $20.32. Check here in a few months to test my powers of prognostication.

That's about it for this blog. Maybe my next one will be titled something like, Upside Down in Australia, or Scootering in Singapore. Time will tell.

Thanks for reading.