Ship’s Log - Stardate: 2015-09-03 - Thursday - Mission Accomplished.

Captain’s Log:

The trip home on day 101 yesterday included a stop at the truck wash to remove over three months of space dust from Starship Arrowstar. We were lucky this time because we didn’t have to wait in a long line of truckers. We were second in line and only had to wait a few minutes after the wash and dry for a spray on wax job. Since they tagged along, Maxwell and the trailer even got washed!

Today Frank tucked our beloved Starship on its pad next to the house and locked the double gates behind it. It’s great to be home with the majority of the laundry finished and most of our stuff unpacked and stowed. Friends have invited us out to dinner tonight to celebrate our return. Life is good!

My backyard has grass almost a foot high and the sunflowers that came up while we were gone have already gone to seed. The birds have been feasting on them already. The stocks are bowed down over the foot high grass, and what looks like grapes have started to vine all over one end of the vegetable garden.  

One red tomato greeted me when I went to check on the garden yesterday. I ate it for breakfast. The mint looks like it got cooked this summer, and I truly don’t know if my jasmine vine is going to survive so much of it is baked. 

Tomorrow I’ll brush the pool and Frank will spray the filters. Hopefully we’ll get that finished before the heat of the day, which only got to 98 degrees today. I haven’t been in the swimming pool yet, but I imagine it’s still plenty warm for swimming since nighttime temps are still in the 80s.

Someone recently asked us to name our favorite part of this Starship mission. We both agreed it was the Henry Ford Greenfield Village and Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.  Our least favorite visit was the glass bottom boat tour of sunken wrecks in Lake Huron. The views we had of the wrecks were murky at best. 

First Officer’s Log:

Well, “we is arrizz.” Or if you prefer, “we have arrized.”  In any vernacular, we are safely docked at Star Base Griswold.

Now, let me write a word or two about the favorites and least favorites described above.  Yes, as the captain said, we both are in awe of the Henry Ford Village and Museum.  But the four days we spent with my brothers Greg and Scott, and their wives Betty and Linda in NC, and the week we spent in Virginia with brothers Guy and Kim and neph/niece kids Guy Jr. and Terri, made the real highlights for me.  Family trumps all!

 Greg & Betty

 

 Frank & Greg on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Scott & Linda

As for the least favorite, the glass bottom boat tour of the sunken ships, it was a disappointment because the boat a) wasn’t really “glass bottomed” and b) the boat had no illumination under it so the wrecks were just murky images of indefinable something or other.  The boat needs lights under it!  On the other hand, the first mate and the deckhand were cute as bugs, and the (free) museum was worth the price we paid for the boat ride.

We spent 101 days and 9700 miles out there.  We saw a lot of neat things and I squashed a lot of pennies.  We visited with our kids, spouses and grandkids, on both Cheryl’s side of our extended family and on my side.

We saw things that have been on our “Bucket Lists” (I’m beginning to hate that phrase) for years, places like the Henry Ford and the Cowgirl Museum being prime among them.  We saw things we never knew about like the Duesenberg Museum, the Carriage Museum, the RV Museum (of all things!), and the Very Large Array.  (Now that was NEAT!)

And I got to visit Pie Town New Mexico and have pie at BOTH of the cafés.  Now that’s saying something!

But all good things have to end.  So we will say “so long” for now.

“This was the voyage of the Starship Arrowstar.  Its three month mission to boldly go where lots of other people have gone before.”

Mission accomplished!

End Log

I hope you've enjoyed reading our travel blog. If you'd like to hear more from Arrowstar's Captain C. K. Thomas, author, you can find her blogs, books, and pages at the following links:

We-Tired and Writing - Insiders Scoop on the Arrowstar Series & Musings
Phoenix Meetup Group Blog - Observations & Arrowvations - 29th ea month
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