In which we congratulate the Jolly Green Giant on his stamina, wonder what comes next but first we stop to remember some of the highlights of the 2022 tour.
As Jerry is keen to remind us, everybody drives a used car, although some cars are more used than others.
Mr G went through 76K miles on this trip, or maybe 176K or 276K. The work done by VMM over the winter on his engine and powertrain was fantastic, we managed to surge past several trucks on the interstates (when we chose to use them) and the brakes were so good that they reminded us that the tyres really needed to be much stickier. 
Apart from a tendency to wash your feet during the more Biblical downpours, the interior is waterproof and the engine never missed a beat during even the heaviest rain.
And America is absolutely full of people who remember their parents having a Ford Country Squire back in their childhood, so every refuelling opportunity of which there were many gave us a chance to chat to someone else about their FCS memories.
The trip statistics are 3,300 miles on the JGG’s odometer which we think over-reads by about 8%, as the route you can see on GoogleMaps is 3,070 miles. This required a total of 220 of your strangely small American gallons of fuel, delivering 14 real-life miles to the undersized gallon. Oil and water became regular snacks but nothing else was really needed.
We drove on 20 days and the whole trip lasted closer to 40 days, so you can see that Doris’ goal to get Sid to stop and relax once in a while is working a bit.
What next for your duo or indeed trio? (if you include “S”, which I guess we must).
Well, as we may have mentioned before, Mr Joe is a very bad influence and he has discovered a trip called the Great Loop. And then, helpfully, he has started taking photos of ads for boats which would be absolutely ideal for it. We have absolutely no intention of doing this. It is a very very stupid idea. And anyway, very few people would consider taking a Ford Country Squire in part exchange for a 40+foot motorboat.
But before we rush on to the next foolishness, what should we remember from Sid, Doris, the Silk and the JGG’s 2022 tour?
The Sayes Mansion, Bethlehem steelworks and machine tool museum; singing in Wilmington and sailing with Joe around Oxford; the soldiers’ and wives’ letters in the Appomattox Civil War museum; Lynchburg’s secret car horde and The Scissors Poem; the rain in Smyth Valley (and in the footwell); Bristol TN, the home of country music; Appalachian homes; Asheville’s Thomas Wolfe house and 1920’s Grove Arcade; crossing the Eastern Continental Divide; definitely no cruise in Athens; Sarah Lynn with the queeyult and uranium glass at the Heritage House in Madison; in Macon the Burke mansion where we stayed and the trompe in the Hay House; the rain in Macon as we ate; the Ocmulgee Mounds park and congressman; the sadness of Tuskegee town and the bag-on-head Confederate statue; staying at the Wetumpka Casino yet dining in a Waffle House; Jefferson Davis’ house saved by the women of the Montgomery and the town’s thoughtful museum; every day a long straight road; the Silk spotting so many railways and so few trains; the Lindsey Stancill House and their well meant Southern breakfast in Laurel (home of the American house make-over show); the enormous price of modest (at best) meals offset by $4 per US gallon for petrol; the Pontchartrain Bridge into New Orleans; Fritzels jazz and the rain on South Rampart Street (not forgetting the Fritzels band played S R St Blues); the stilt houses of the Bayou Sauvage and first signs of Spanish Moss; Pensacola’s small but perfectly formed historic district; relaxing at Jekyll Island on the enclosed balcony, swimming off the beach and eating three times on sunset dock; in Savannah meeting the Tennessean in Julie’s B&B who told us where to eat in Charleston; Sid and Doris not missing the railroad museum though meeting a train when leaving town; going by water taxi to the USS Yorktown; playing four of Myrtle Beach’s best mini golf courses in two days; Hannah’s house in New Berm and the unconvincing North Carolina history museum; the Navy jets at Virginia Beach; lunch on the dock at Onancock; Queen Elizabeth dying; getting the Mini and VWs ready for the Oxford road rally and 1960s party at St Michaels Maritime Museum (see also with Joe and Betka); getting the JGG back to his home in New Jersey for lunch with Matt and Linda.
High paw. And big thumbs-up to the JGG and VMM’s preparation.
Apart from a tendency to wash your feet during the more Biblical downpours, the interior is waterproof and the engine never missed a beat during even the heaviest rain.
We drove on 20 days and the whole trip lasted closer to 40 days, so you can see that Doris’ goal to get Sid to stop and relax once in a while is working a bit.
HIGH PAW would be a great name for a Sabre 43SE. Just sayin’…
So … when you doing the Great Loop then?! 😂