homeward bound

    We woke up around 4 due to the noise, laid around until around 6 and gave it up to get anymore sleep.  So we packed and left.  Stopping at Denny's for breakfast and then we hit the road.  The mountains are behind us.  Not to be seen again until our next vacation.   Its sad.

   The weather is rainy and deary.  The road.... very long, boring and not a bathroom to be seen for miles.  Our coffee was a mistake.   Finally we saw a roadside stop.  Rick stopped and as he walked to the outhouse a huge swarm of mosquitoes flew up in a cloud.  Bad side.  They landed on the windows and were huge.  Gee maybe I don't have to go that bad after all.  Rick returned looking pale.  You don't want to use that restroom he gasped.  It is the worse yet.  You wouldn't be able to sit, or breath, or maybe even live through it.  Hummmm, sounds grim. 

   Off we go toward town looking for a McDonald's.  Right outside of the town I see a park.  With a new restroom.  Would it be clean?  We had been having terrible luck in Colorado with the rest  stops.  Was it a teenagers nationals past time to trash the pit stops?  Kind of like tipping cows or Tee peeing houses in other towns?  Still, I had had the endless pot of coffee at Denny's.  Me with the bladder of a gnat.  100 miles ago.  So we pulled in and I went in.  Heaven.  Clean, sparkling clean, smelled good.  Working faucets.  Toilets that flush.  Paper towels.  Yippy.  It really is the little things in life, LOL.

   On our travels we hadn't seen many highway patrol.  Maybe 3 in 3000 miles.   No one drives the speed limit.  That all changed when we hit Nebraska.  All of a sudden about every 15 miles there was a highway patrolman with a speeder pulled over.  We slowed down and stopped following the flow.  What a bummer to end our trip with a ticket.  So crawling along at 75 we worked our way home.  The sun started peaking out and we were making good time.  At this rate we should make it to town around 3:30 and could eat at our favorite restaurant before going home.  I called my son to tell him the good news where he proceeded to remind me we were out of mountain time now and it was a hour later then we thought.  Bummer.  That meant we would be hitting Omaha at rush hour.  Bigger Bummer.  That would put it closer to 6 or 7 if we didn't get stuck in traffic behind a accident like happened to us last time.

   Why is it once you decide to go home you just want it to be over.  Blink your eyes and be there.  For the first time I was cramped in our van.  Our tempers were short.  And we did hit rush hour traffic from Lincoln Nebraska on.  But no accidents.  So we crept along and finally at 6:45 we pulled up at Sweet Fannies for supper and then home.  Heaven.

     We got home and Zoey glued herself to us.  We visited with our son and both talked at once about our trip.  It had been wonderful.  Expensive but wonderful.  We put on a little over 4000 miles.  4000 miles of beautiful country.  By the next day we are already planning the next trip.  We can't wait.