CLICK ON ‘2007’ UNDER ‘BLOG ARCHIVE’ (UPPER-RIGHT) FOR FULL ADVENTURE OVERVIEW

THANKS AND FAREWELL. UNTIL NEXT TIME…

6/30 (Day 22 - Final Day):

In the great immortal words of Jerry Garcia, “What a long, strange trip it’s been.” An unforgettably fun one at that.

Thank you to all the faithful blog followers whose phone calls, e-mails, and blog postings have made this such a memorable trip. Unbeknownst to many, ‘Big Brother’ was watching the anonymous blog viewings at SlomeAdventure.blogspot.com via traffic meter software we installed on our laptop halfway through the trip. To our surprise, interest steadily built and peaked at 327 daily page views, with at least people in four countries periodically peeking. Although no Google equivalent, as far as site traffic goes, the blog still gave us the voyeuristic opportunity to track site interest.

Returning alive with all limbs after covering an extensive 5,048 miles journey like this engenders a great deal of gratitude to both people and aspects of the trip that we couldn’t fully describe in a relatively short daily entry. So in a laundry list format, here are some of the people/things that deserve further recognition:

-Robin (Editor-in-Chief of blog, along with Vice President of RV Kid Management)
-Hospitable hosts (i.e. Schullers, Magnussens, Jenkins, Tomlinsons, Schipfers, among others)
-Dodie & Norm (for all their postings)
-DVD Player (Digital crack for the kids)
-Garmin GPS Device (Our guide-dog for the blind)
-SiteMeter (Our ‘Big Brother’ software)
-Deodorant (Active bodies will perspire)
-Stick (See day eight of blog)
-Fruit Snacks (Hayley’s heroin)
-Double Smores (Whitney’s invention)
-WiFi (For without this our blog would not be possible)
-Baseball Hats (Bed-head mitigation)
-Boo-Boo Kitty (Pink cat-shaped ice pack for RV adventure bumps/bruises)
-Books on Tape (Ace on the River – Barry Greenstein; A little History of the World – E.H. Gombrich; and Grammar Girls Quick & Dirty Tips – Mignon Fogarty)
-iPod (For mind-numbing 400 mile drives)
-Con Te Partiro (Andrea Bocelli – morning music to soothe the savage beasts)
-Toilet sanitizer (Self explanatory)

Thanks again to all the blog-ees and we will look forward to documenting our adventures in the future. Perhaps we will see you next year….for Slome Adventure 2008???

-WS

GET YOUR T-SHIRTS HERE!

6/30 (Day 22): The Slome tour may have come to an end, but the memories have not. What better way to encapsulate the events than a special edition commemorative SlomeAdventure.blogspot t-shirt. Please contact wslome@yahoo.com for order details. Also, feel free to inquire about our unique Slome Adventure DVD and exclusive foam beverage Koozies, which are currently on back order. Finally, should the band reunite for another tour, we will be the first to notify you.

FINAL GUZZLE/PATCH METER UPDATE

Guzzzle-meter: $2,527.48 final total. Maybe next time we do an RV trip, the Beast will be running off of vegetable oil or buffalo chips in which case I’ll just lose an arm (not both arm & leg). I never thought those annoying 6th grade math, word-problems would come in handy until now. Without Mr. Beddahl’s tutelage, I would not have been able to answer the following question: “ If the Slome family spent a total of $2,527.48 on gasoline with an average price of $3.25 per gallon, then what type of gas mileage (Miles Per Gallon) did they get on there 5,048 mile Slome Adventure?” ANSWER: 6.5 Miles Per Gallon (uggh!)

Patch-Meter: Unfortunately, I have to face the music…with a razor. The “Soul Patch” didn’t progress as expected, but I remain steadfast that given more time the patch could have blossomed into something very special (next time I won’t wait until day twelve to start my growth).

NO PLACE LIKE HOME...

6/29 (Day 21): Now that we have re-entered Kansas on our homestretch leg to Overland Park, it does feel a little like The Wizard of Oz. But instead of flying monkey’s, we saw the ‘World’s Largest Prairie Dog’ weighing in at 8,000 lbs and measuring 18 feet in length at Prairie Dog Town. Sorry to say though, this giant prairie dog wasn’t what we expected (see below). More than just prairie dogs, the four decade old animal farm housed live rattlesnakes, coyotes, wild boars, badgers, and a fifteen pound giant Flemish rabbit, among other animals. The Innes skateboarding team (far right), a bunch of delinquent minors bussed from Oceanside, California, joined us in the fun but got their jollies from harassing the geese and wild boars.


(As you can see, we fell for the ‘World’s Largest’ marketing gimmick: hook, line, and sinker. )

(Couldn’t resist including the two-headed cow. We have a sweet Jackalope picture too.)

'FATIGUE' HAS SET IN

6/29: Too many Winnie the Pooh DVD repeats? Mosquito contracted West Nile symptoms? Perhaps all the microwaved corn dogs and chicken nuggets have now exerted a toll? Or maybe it’s just one too many 400 mile drives? Irrespective of the cause, there are no worries now that we are just a short 175 mile jaunt from Salina to our home base Mecca.

I think it was Vince Lombardi who said, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all,” but as far as I’m concerned fatigue just makes me sleepy. When I get back from the trip, I’m recommending Winnebago design a pillow feature right into the steering wheel. Fortunately the screaming kids and caffeinated beverages prevented me from driving the Beast straight off a cliff.

DINO-MITE!

(Our two little dinosaurs)

6/28: We stumbled upon this Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center in Woodland Park just on the outskirts of Colorado Springs despite it not being an official location on the Wade Slome agenda. Nevertheless, it earned a top approval rating on the Whitney & Hayley satisfaction gauge (Mom & Dad too). Contributing to the kids’ entertainment value was the fossil excavation activity and dinosaur book story time.

Interestingly, over forty different types of dinosaurs have been discovered in Colorado, including one of the earliest on record in the U.S. over 130 years ago. Colorado is also home to five major dinosaur museums including this one.

Unlike Robin, I was not a History major and museums like this help me appreciate what temporary tourists us humans have been on this planet. If you believe that the ‘Big Bang’ happened 14 billion years ago, and dinosaurs were here a few hundred million years ago, then it makes the last 200 thousand years of modern human existence feel like an insignificant blurb or headline in the whole scheme of things. Alrighty then, so there is my philosophical soliloquy.

(T-Rex ancestor [Albertosaurus] chomping on an Edmontosaurus)