The 53rd Day

Bjorn all fixed and ready to leave the Indianapolis Camping World

Before I get to the final day of our odyssey, a little bit about Day 52...  The night before, after Bjorn's first day on the road and first night to camp in him, he needed a doctor's appointment at the Camping World in Indianapolis.  When we set up camp (at 11:30 p.m) I came across an unexpected problem when hooking up the water - leaks.  Leaks from the fitting on the outside of the camper and Lisa reported water spraying against the side of the linen closet inside the camper.  You can imagine how happy I was - no water to take a shower not to mention no bathroom for the night...  But, I took a deep breath, called the dealership in the morning and they arranged for us to get it looked at in Indianapolis, right on our route. 

Turns out that the outside fitting was missing a small screen filter the size of a nickel and the problem was solved.  Off we went and were able to arrive in Zanesville by 8 p.m.  By the way, the campground we stayed at in Zanesville, OH was supposed to be the campground we stayed in on Day 1 of this journey.  You may recall that Day 1 didn't go so well and we ended up altering our route away from Zanesville to see Uncle Chris and get that fuel pump fixed on Gigantibeast.  Pretty weird how things turn out sometimes...

The Final Day

Bjorn in Zanesville, OH

These two slide outs will give us room to grow

Our second night in the new camper (with water and a bathroom, YAY!) was bliss.  Mommy did a lot of organizing inside the camper while I did very little outside except to put a few beers in the outside kitchen fridge and do some organizing, but not much.  I did stay up until 4:30 in the morning finishing up blog posts all the way back to Crazy Horse.  Even figured out with my little night owl Scarlett how to get the TV to tune in to HD channels over the air with our antennae.  Pretty weird having a TV in the camper - we're going to need some rules about when that gets turned on for sure.

So our last day on the road started at noon.  No, not because I was up until 4:30, but more because I wanted to pass through NYC after rush hour.  It was going to be a long day - 573 miles and four state lines.  It's sad that as we crossed into Ohio and continued to push east, everything deteriorated pretty quickly.  The roads got worse and worse and drivers were worse than the roads.  It kept reminding me of how much I loved being out West - good roads, less traffic and nonsense.  Simple.  Sure, you have to drive 50 miles for groceries, but that may be better than what I was driving into... But we paced ourselves, enjoyed our last lunch picnic lunch in Pennsylvania (no pretty stream, but at least the table was clean) with one gas stop before home. 

Parking with the big boys

The Olsen's last picnic lunch - a service area on PA turnpike

Bjorn in his first cave - a tunnel in PA

A bent bumper

As we got to the eastern side of PA, it was time for our last gas stop.  It was 8:30 and New York City was about an hour away.  I pulled into an oh-so-tight gas station and filled up while the kids did their normal "pit stop" thing - a quick bathroom break and back in the truck by the time I pull the receipt from the gas pump.  Well, it didn't quite go so quickly, but I was anxious to get out of that gas station - it was busy and I was semi-blocking one of the exits.  As I pulled through I had to make a pretty hard right to avoid driving right through the convenience store - when I did that I was forgetting how long Bjorn was compared to the Frontier and as the tail end pivoted around, the last 6 inches of the trailer clipped those "pump protectors".  You know, those iron and cement filled pipes that are shaped like an upside down "U" at both ends of a gas pump to prevent someone from running right over a pump.  Lisa tried to warn me about that side of the camper before it happened, but I wasn't thinking it through entirely.  To this day, I think it was Bjorn's way of grabbing onto something to keep him from having to get beat up on the Cross Bronx Expressway, but the kids just shake their head when I say things like that.  Once I pulled clear of the pumps and looked at the damage, I felt slightly better.  Sure his bumper was peeled back, the rear stabilizer jack was mangled and he had some scratches, but everything looked reparable.  Laryssa was the only one brave enough to come back and ask if I needed some help removing the stabilizer jack - such a sweet girl.  

Darn upside down "U's" made these on the side.  Grrrrrr.

The incident gnawed at me all the way home, which lasted until 1:30 a.m.  Turns out I did a great job avoiding rush hour traffic, but night time construction on the Long Island Expressway essentially accomplished the same thing.  First at exits 40 - 43 and again out at 63 - 66.  It's funny that as we pulled through my Dad's field after traveling from coast to coast and logging 8,642 miles in the process, it was the last 150 that were the worst.  But we are safely home!  I have already dropped off Bjorn for his repairs and it will be covered by insurance - we should have him back in less than a week.  And what a journey this was.  I have said this more than a few times on the way back east that I could do this every summer.  As much as we were able to see on this trip, it was amazing the things we didn't see at each stop.  And while I was able to keep up with this blog (sometimes painfully so) and give you guys updates on what we did, there was so much more that happened that never made it into the blog.  We all kind of joked on this trip (and more than once) that two or three stops before seemed like sooooooooo long ago and most times it was only a few days before.  Camping somehow distorts time, slows it down. 

Cheers to our trip!  (and we had a great breakfast, too!)

In less than 2 weeks we'll all be back to school, but it has certainly been one of those summers that we will all remember forever.  For Maribeth, you can travel with us wherever we go, whenever we go!  It was so much fun to have you there for this experience.  I know the kids had so much fun with you on the road and off the road!  You were a great travel companion and, of course, your magic iPad helped us to make some great decisions along the way.  We'll miss you!  And Annalise will miss her traveling buddy - I saw lots of smiles coming from that second row and you had a lot to do with that.

So that's it.  The Olsen's Odyssey 2013 has come to an end.  Before school starts, I will be posting one more entry - there are a few movies that I have made along the way that I just couldn't upload due to the lack of broadband.  They will be links to YouTube, just so you know.  Thanks for coming along for the ride!