Dang ... We both have colds !!

The last few days have been totally overwhelming.

We got home on Thursday, cold, tired, and worn out.

Fortunately, our awesome friend that was keeping an eye on our condo and mail, surprised us by cleaning our condo before we got home. 

Many many thanks for that, and no, we are not going to give out her name, because we want her all to ourselves.

We have stacks and stacks of mail, some requiring immediate attention.

I hauled all our clothes and food out of the motorhome, and now the condo is a disaster. 

The motorhome needed to be winterized immediately, because it went to -6C, then off to the storage place for now.

Feeling sick and miserable, I still had to venture out and get a few groceries.

Oh, and did I mention, it snowed here the day after we got home.

Okay, so now everyone is asking, Why the heck did we come home so early ??

Well, the main reason was our son and his family were going to be leaving for a Florida holiday the first part of April, and we were anxious to see them before they left.

We were going to take a week or so to get home, well, at least that was the plan.

What we didn't plan for, was the cold weather after we left Las Vegas, and the lack of open campgrounds.

Remember, this was our very first time heading south for the winter.

Our first night on the road found us at a Love's truck stop in Wells, Nevada. 

It went below freezing that night, and we did not have a great sleep at all.

I walked over to a McDonalds in the morning, and grabbed the largest coffees they had, started up the rig and headed out.

I think it was about 6 or 7 in the morning.  Unheard of for TnT !!

And we just kept driving.  It did not make sense to stop early, and just sit there and freeze in a snowy parking lot, so on we went.

About 11 hours later, we pulled into a Walmart in Great Falls, MT.

By this time, Teresa has a sore throat and is coughing her pretty little head off.  Gulp ... I knew I was doomed to catch it too.

We did manage to sleep a little better that night, probably because we were so totally wiped.

The next morning, I grabbed another couple of hot coffees and we were on the road before it was even light out, with the rig's heater on full blast.

As we approached the border we started getting a little anxious, wondering how our first crossing would unfold.

Teresa can write a book on being organized, so I was not surprised when she pulled out an envelope with receipts for all our purchases we would need to claim for the past 5 1/2 months.

Of course we went over the allowable $750.00 dollars worth of goods each, so we did not know how that was going to work out either.

Our border agent asked about alcohol ( one bottle of wine ) tobacco, (none), and the value of purchased items we were claiming ( $1800.00 ).

We then followed him inside, and were delighted when he said we only owe about $30.00 for our excess spending.  Yeah !!

Once back in Canada, we broke out in the Canadian Anthem, yes honestly, and made a beeline for our favourite store of all.

About three hours later we were pulling up to our condo, with our family waiting there for us !!

Our granddaughter ( two years old ), had changed so much !!

After everyone left, we ran a bath of hot soapy water, to soothe our sore and aching bodies.  Plus, we were unable to shower for the last three days .... phew !!

And that brings us up to date.  I am still dealing with the mail, Teresa is still doing laundry, and we are both still sick.

I am going to do a summary blog in the next couple of days.

We want to record our feelings about being away from family that long, how much money we spent, and what we remember the most of our journey.

But for now, it is back to the couch for some much needed rest.