the final post

Our sincere apologies for the delay in providing this summary - finally, the last post.

First from Amy...

I really hate to say goodby. So I'm just going to run through a few of my special moments.

(1) Miley Cyrus was a blast, getting to see my favorite singer, I loved it wouldn't you?

(2)the crown of the statue of liberty was unforgettable. Being probably one of the first in NZ since she reopened!!

(3) The new year at Disney was just magic. Seeing those fireworks being the magic kingdom.

(4) Busch gardens has the best roller coasters ever.

(5) And spending the time of my life with the most awesome family in the world.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about the trip as much as we enjoyed going on it.

From Amy

Hello its Deanna,

I would like to say my final goodbyes and to say how much I enjoyed my holiday. This has been a great experience for all of us, and has brought our family together. I have enjoyed every moment of it. Even the tough times, it has still been great.

Some things I liked...

Talladega = NASCAR racing,

Memphis = Elvis's house (Gracelands) and Sun Record Studio,

Canada = Great scenes

Indianapolis = Miley Cyrus

Vermont = Charlebios house

Montreal = Ice Hockey!

Maine = Strawberries (make that the Salisburys)

New York = Statue of Liberty

Washington = White House

Cumming = Christmas with cousins

Florida = Theme parks

Overall my holiday has been a blast!

Hi its Emma and the things I liked the most at America that were really fun, awesome and amazing were:

1 MILEY CYRUS CONCERT because she is my favorite singer and she is really cool!!! Her dresses were awesome.

2 NEW YORK because the statue of liberty, she was amazing because of the view. Times Square was amazing. All the lights were WOW and how we drove right through in our R.V.

3 NIGARA FALLS because they go around in a half circle and at night it was lit up.

4 Atlanta because my cousins live there and we had Christmas there.

5 I liked staying at the Strawberries and we had thanksgiving there.

6 I liked staying at the Charlebois place it was the time we jumped in the pond.

Thanks for reading my recount on America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Hello from your blog editor for the final time. This summary conclusion has been a while in coming (due to slackness on my part) however here we finally are.

Our trip from Tampa to Auckland was long as you would expect. 7pm departure from Tampa after our 2^nd day at Busch Gardens and a quick feed, approx 9 hours to drive the 490 miles back to Atlanta. A few hours kip, then a few hours packing our bags before the 1 hour drive to the airport… which, due to poor timekeeping, meant we missed the luggage check in deadline by about 3 minutes for our flight to LA. Long story short, meant we got standby seats a few hours later and made it in time for our international connection back to Auckland. I have about concluded that missing the last night of sleep before you leave (as we did driving back from Tampa) is an excellent way to avoid jetlag on your return. It’s the second time I’ve done that when visiting the USA and have slept well on the flights home… meaning virtually no jetlag.

It’s really difficult to summaries such an enormous adventure in one final blog. I guess, in many ways, the story has already been told. In total we visited 26 states of the USA and 2 in Canada covering almost exactly 8000 miles. We typically free camped 4-5 nights per week, mainly in Walmart carparks but also on the side of the road, public carparks and the like. Many campgrounds were closed but we always managed to find somewhere to fill up with water and dump our waste when we needed to.

Our RV was amazing and thanks again to Mr Paul Seymour for his fantastic assistance with the purchase and refurbishment of what became our home for 10 weeks. There were a few challenges with the following items needing repair or attention at some stage of the journey:

1. our flashers stopped working due to a fuse being replaced in the wrong slot
2. leaky hydraulics affecting the slide out and jacks
3. broken spring on one of the jacks
4. faulty starter motor on the generator needed replacing
5. solenoid was faulty and not charging our batteries properly… and needed replacing
6. air conditioning units were scraped on the underside of a bridge causing a roof leak with one of them
7. roof air vent wouldn’t close properly meaning we had to disconnect the wind-up mechanism, then scramble up onto the (often very icy) roof to put a brick up there overnight when it was windy... and try not to get blown off in the process!
8. one of our wing mirrors got collected by a truck meaning we were without it for a week and had to replace it
9. our sewer hose broke and needed replacing
10. bathroom roof vent winder broke and needed replacing
11. some power points stopped working towards the end of the trip (hopefully Paul is cleverer than me and can work out what is wrong with them)
12. and I’m sure I’ve missed a problem or 2 off that list…

All that sounds like a lot, however in 10 weeks it only cost us around about 1.5 days delay and around US$1000 in repairs… which when compared with US$1500 per week to rent such a vehicle, is small change indeed! Out fun and games with the RV proved to be quite an interesting and challenging part of our adventure… but nothing we couldn’t handle.

One of my favourite stories from the trip was near the end at Busch Gardens when Emma was told she was 2” too short to ride the 3 big rollercoasters. There was no way we Woodies were going to be beaten by such silly rules… so the girls and I took Emma back to the RV and made her grow by putting her shoes inside a pair of Amy’s boots, then putting her hair in a bun underneath her beany. So then we could ALL ride the biggest baddest coasters in Florida!

Below are our 2 favourite video clips from the trip (neither of which have been posted previously). One is Sheikra, the newest roller coaster & Busch Garden, the other is the New Years countdown @ Magic Kingdon. Also a selection of our favourite photos.

I would like to conclude by thanking all our regular and part time followers – it has been our absolute pleasure to bring you the stories from our epic USA adventure. Thanks for your comments, and to those of you who tried unsuccessfully to comment, it was lovely to have you keeping us company on our travels.

So, for the final time, this is woodiesusaroadtrip.blogspot.com signing off.