The Trip Comes to an End

After some 9543 miles covering 21 states and 4 weeks on the road I'm back home.
Angie and I arrived about 7:00 pm last night after a long day on the road. It's nice to be home!
My last post had gotten us to Sundance, WY. Not much of a town, out on the plains, just a spot on the side of the road,  least it had a place for us to sleep.We had dinner at Roa Family Restaurant. I had all the local color you could want; the food wasn't bad.

We're reaching for home. Angie's symptoms haven't improved so we're heading for Salt Lake City and then Home. I'm sorry that Angie wasn't able to visit Yellowstone, she really was anticipating this part of the trip.
We spent most of the drive on the Interstate jousting with the truckers and other travelers in a hurry to get somewhere.

Our route took us through a lot of wide open country, that seem to stretch out unimpeded forever. This transitioned into high desert grasslands to the mountains surrounding Salt Lake City, UT. We were somewhat successful in out running a thunderstorm. At lest it keep things cool, it been in the high 80's most of the time, not missing the high temps or the humidity.
Came into Salt Lake City by way of Park City, a big ski resort; approaching it from the east I didn't realize how much of a climb we were making but coming down the other side you get a marvelous vista of Salt Lake City stretched out in the valley below.  Got a tour of the SLC freeway system in finding our hotel, lots of fun after 10 hours of driving. At least it was Saturday evening so no rush hour traffic.

Early to bed early to rise. Sunday; we were up early with a final 11 hours of driving in front of us. Angie wants to get home so no site seeing along the way just potty breaks. Long straight road through the salt flats and then though desert for miles and miles. Stopped in Elko, NV for lunch, this time at KFC no local color, except that it was across the street from the cemetery. Took the tour through town just to check it out, much to Angie's concern. Lot of desert, I mean a lot of desert. The whole northern part of Nevada is sand and casinos. How those who came trough here to settle the west made it is miraculous And as we drove along there are these little settlements of a couple of buildings and/or trailers; solitary houses set in the middle of the dessert with nothing for miles.
Finally made it to Reno. 4 hours from home. Coming over the pass to Truckee we got drenched by a thunderstorm, Lighting struck the hill starting a brush fire; fortunately it was put out by the rain and was smoldering as we passed. OK, we're back in California. Massive traffic jam heading to Sacramento. Lots of people going home after a weekend in the mountains. It was like old times driving home from the Tahoe area, I know the road by hart we've traveled in so many times.
That's it. I might post some additional photos and remarks in the next couple of days; don't hold your breath.
Its been fun.

Pierre, SD to Sundance, WY

Angie is ill with a very congested head and a bad cough. So we're going home tomarrow, shortening our trip by a couple of days; we'll be traveling the highways so that we can make as much distance as we can. We're stopping in Salt Lake City tonight and push home on Sunday.Unfortunately, we're going to bypass Yellowstone something Angie wanted to do.
Angie was a trouper Friday, after leaving my aunts we went to the Field of Dreams movie site, it was great fun.

Angie at the Field of Dreams

We drove through the Badlands National Monument,

saw prerrie dogs

Mount Rushmore,
and Devils Tower.

A beautiful way to end the day.

DC to Lexington, KY to Marion, IA to Pierre, SD

We've been on the road for a couple of days now.
The drive from DC to Lexington, KY was nice; driving through the Blue Ridge mountains of Virgina, the Allegheny's of West Virgina and the grass lands of Kentucky. We had a great drive through quite a variety of topography. The best part was stopping in all the small towns for gas and stuff. The towns are wonderfully Rockwell in nature; the typical downtown surrounded by great old houses.
Angie and I have been really curious about the change in topography as we move from state to state.As soon as we cross a state line the terrain instantly changes from the rolling hills of the Shenandoah Valley to deep valleys of West Virgina, replaced with the flat grass lands of  Kentucky. Its very lush and green.

Leaving Lexington we moved into the central plain states; heading north by northwest to Iowa. Lots of corn fields and soy beans. Wide open spaces.
We've been fortunate missing most of the heat and storms as we move north. It's actually pleasant lately. Angie is always shocked when she steps out of the car and her glasses fog up.
Made it to Marion, IA to visit my aunt. We had a wonderful visit and enjoyed the stay.

Today, we left Marion and headed toward the Dakota's. But before we left Iowa we took a small detour to visit the "Field of Dreams" ball field. Actually it was a lot of fun and interesting.  Did a lot of driving today to make it to Pierre, SD. Pierre is the capital of SD and is on the  Missouri River. I was very impressed with the vastness of SD. It has these wonderful rolling hills that afford great vistas of the prairie.

Enough for now, sorry no pictures maybe later. Heading for the Badlands and Mount Rushmore tomorrow, keep you posted.

Leaving DC

Tomorrow we, Angie and me, are leaving DC for home. It will have been a week since I arrived in DC and it been a good week. I've spent the week doing almost nothing except visiting with family and friends. I tried to sit down an write a recap of my journey eastward but just couldn't get very far before I was off doing something else.

The weather here has be absolutely exceptional, moderate humidity and  the temperature has been in the high 80's, low 90's. Very pleasant walking around weather for DC.
It was great to have some time with Jennifer(daughter) and her significant other Per. They came in to have dinner with me the first night (last Tuesday) which I really enjoyed and appreciated,. not having anyone to really talk to for more than a week.
Angie, came in on Wednesday night. We spent some time catching up and relaxing. I found it hard adjusting at first, wanting to go to bed when the sunset and get up with the sunrise, typical road behavior.
Some how Angie wasn't into it.

On Friday night Jennifer and Per took us to the Nationals  Park to watch the Nationals beat the Phillies.
Its a great stadium and we had great seats thanks to Per.

I got the windshield fixed on Thursday, now I can once again see the world without a crack the shape of a long horn steers horns.

Chris (son) and his family arrived on Saturday morning. Oh what a joy seeing them; especially the baby, Annabel.
The baby turned 1 on July 31 and she is just a jewel, but then I'm only slightly prejudice.

We, as a family, along with our good friend Vivian Lock, went to dinner at a local French restaurant which was very enjoyable; great food great family, just lovely. It was nice to have the whole family together again, its been awhile.

Unfortunately, Annabel, the poor dear, was under the influence of a viral infection acquired at her day care, and as the evening progressed became feverish and couldn't sleep. So, in the early morning we go the tour of upper northwest DC looking for the DC Children's Hospital. What an adventure.

The doctor said it just the virus and to give her infant Motrin and Tylenol. This proved easier said than done. It seem that Motrin has had this massive recall on the infant formula and even the generic was hard to come by. I shopped at least three CVS drugstores with no luck. Her parents eventually found some up by DuPont Circle.
This weekend was in part suppose to give Chris and Kathleen a chance to spend some quality time together while the grandparents enjoyed the baby. They had arranged to spend a night in a local hotel while we watched the baby. I was with a great deal of trepidation that we had to call them, at 2:00 am concerned with the persistent temperature Annabel seem to be running. Not the time off they had hoped. I feel a bit inadequate, not being able to handle this for them. I was one of those up and down nights. We did get some good grandparent time with her though and that was what was really nice. Chris, Kathleen and Annabel left for home this afternoon. I hope she gets better soon.
So now we're, actually Angie, is cleaning up the condo and getting ready to start off tomorrow.

We're heading off to Lexington tomorrow.

Oh! If I hadn't mentioned it Angie is not a camper. Her idea of camping is the Best Western motel chain, sorry Best Western. So probably  no more sunrise/sunsets over the camp site. As  you can see by the map we're heading west then turning north. We're visiting my aunt  in Iowa and going to visit Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone before getting home. Of course there will be a lot of highway in between; since we have only 7 days to get across the US I don't see to many side roads. Bummer.
I'll be back in touch.