​Chapter 11: Wow! What A Trip!

John Lennon once wrote, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
 
And what’s true for life is true for road trips.
 
For those of you who followed my trip online at www.StoriesFromTheRoadLesTraveled.com  or on social media you already know that things didn’t always go as planned. Some of that was a good thing, others not so much. But the mere fact that I was able to do it – and live to tell about it – made it soooo well worth it.
 
In the following chapters I will get in to greater detail, but for now I’ll just give you a few highlights.

1. I left Arizona on May 26, 2016 and returned 136 days later on October 9, 2016.
2. My original plans were to come back Nov 8, 2016, but when the Governor of Florida came on the TV and said, “Get out. Get out. This Category Four Hurricane will kill you!” I drove as far and as fast as I could to get out of harm’s way.
3. Although there were times it was only my rear tire that tagged a state, I was able to complete my goal of visiting all 48 contiguous states in the USA.
4. I estimate that I put 15,000 miles on my car – not counting the distance it was towed.
5. Other than two nights I spent for free in a hotel, I stayed with friends and family I have known all my life and with some people I have never met before.
6. In the first loop of the internal states I was a guest in approximately 25 homes. In the second loop around the perimeter of the US I was a guest in approximately 30 homes.
7. I stayed in a guest suite of a 3 million dollar penthouse and slept on a blowup mattress in a crowded living room – and everything in between – and it was all good.
8. Between the money I saved and earned along the way, I accomplished my goal of actually being paid to take this trip.
9. I learned it was impossible to lose weight because people bake homemade pies.
10. Most importantly, between the people I met and the roads I traveled I was constantly reminded of how blessed we are to live in a place so aptly called: America The Beautiful.

With that said, whether you are reading this on your phone, tablet or pc, I want to personally thank you for coming along for the ride. I hope you enjoy the anecdotes, observations and images. But most of all I hope it inspires you to do something you’ve been dreaming about so you have your own stories to tell from the road YOU traveled.
 
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