Saturday March 3 Day 44

We tried to get up early to get on route home and eventually had everything ready to go.  We pulled out of the Elks RV lot @ 9:20 @ 50349 miles.  We were making good time, traffic was medium and then we got to Tacoma.  There is a lot of new road construction going on, even the GPS was confused as we finally found a sign to say we were on I 5 north while the GPS kept saying “recalculating”.  As we drove past the Tacoma Dome we knew we were on the right road and the GPS finally agreed.  But it was slow and 4 or 5 lanes of solid traffic.  They had overhead speed signs hanging over each lane & at one point there were 6, “30 MPH” signs.  When we finally got north of Tacoma it smoothed out again although traffic was still heavy, it moved OK.   My only problem was the curb lane kept going to an “exit only” lane & I’d have to try to move over.  Fortunately there is a lot of warning about these exit only lanes so I could always eventually move over with out running anyone off the road.  Although I did notice sometimes, that after having my signal on for a short while, I started to move over and the car in my side mirror suddenly braked or changed lanes. It pays to be big. We finally stopped at a rest area, the one just north of Tulalip Casino, (around exit 210 I think),  to have lunch.  Pulled in @ 12:35 @ 50516 miles and out again @ 1:45.  We pulled of in Ferndale at the last Flying J/Pilot station for our last gas fill. We pulled off the hwy at 2:40 PM @ 50571, back on Hwy @ 3:00.  The electronic sign close to the border said wait time for Blaine 45 minutes, Pacific Hwy 15 minutes.  Arrived at border line @ 3:15 and through & out @ 3:35.  We are finally at our RV storage yard at 40607 miles @ 4:20.  It took an hour and a bit to pack up everything & pull out heading for home.

SYNOPSIS OF TRIP

Miles covered by RV – 2,737

Trip length in Days -    44

Gas used by RV – 406.684 USG 

Cost of gas - USD $1098.48

Total cost on trip of EVERYTHING - $3871.07 USD

Average cost per day of EVERYTHING – $87. 98 USD