The End - Sweet Home Alabama

We are home. We got here about 6:00 on Sunday night. I realized that I had left our story hanging and that I needed to finish up our story and bring you home with us. We left you driving through Colorado. There will be no pictures in this blog. I took a very few pictures while driving through Kansas but none really worthy of posting.

After having left the Browns in Colorado, we were unsure what would be the best route to get home. Any way we went, it would be about an 18 hour drive. We were not keen on doing that in one day so we knew we had at least one more night on the road. We decided to give my sister, the one who lives in Arkansas, a call to see if we could stay with her one night and then drive home from there. She was more than willing for us to come. We spent Friday night in Colorado and then headed down through Kansas toward Arkansas.

For those of you who know anything about football, especially football in the South, you know that not a Saturday goes by without at least one very important game, and usually several critical games on any given Saturday. As we were driving through Kansas, we were listening to the radio, and the announcer said, "It's a beautiful day out there in Central Kansas, and since there is no football to watch, get out there and enjoy the day." What? No football?

Well, in case you didn't know, Sparky and I are Alabama fans, and we had a little ball game going on on Saturday, starting at 2:30. NO WAY were we going to be at my sister's house by 2:30. We were searching and searching the radio to see if we could find the game. SUCCESS: As we were driving through Wichita, we found an ESPN station that was going to cover the game. We still had about 20 minutes to spare before the game started. FAIL: The further we got from Wichita, the worse the station got. About 5 minutes before kickoff, we lost the station completely. Well, we still have an app on the iPhone that gives play by play updates. FAIL: We were in southeast Kansas, not on the interstate, out of Internet coverage. Our oldest daughter was at home so we called her and asked her to text us updates. That worked fine for a while until FAIL: she had a little accident here at home and was not able to text us anymore. (Don't worry. She's fine) It seemed that we were just not going to be able to listen to that game. As it turned out, it was just as well. Not Alabama's finest hour. Maybe God was protecting us.

We spent a pleasant evening and afternoon with my sister and her husband Ed. If you remember, we were there exactly 2 weeks ago for the Arkansas/Alabama game (the one where Sparky almost lost his hat). After we got to the house Ed said, "You know, this is like one of those deals where relatives come to watch a football game and 2 weeks later, they are still here." Ed is a very funny man.

Sunday morning, headed home. It's about a 9 hour drive. We stopped in Memphis for our "Last Supper"... ribs at Corky's (Rendezvous was closed). We played "Sweet Home Alabama" as we crossed the state line into Alabama, and pulled into the driveway a little after 6.

19 days
From driveway to driveway: 6017 miles
Average: 316.68 miles per day
3882 pictures taken
That would be 162 (24 count) rolls of film.
A total of 13 states (not including Alabama): Tennessee; Missouri(3 times); Arkansas (2 times); Kansas (2 times); Oklahoma; Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California; Nevada; Utah; Wyoming, Colorado.
2 National Parks: Petrified Forest - Grand Canyon
National Monument: St. Louis Arch
National Memorial: Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial
Important/Memorable sites: Meteor Crater, Pier at Santa Monica, Great Salt Lake, Pikes Peak, Continental Divide (North and South), the lights of Las Vegas and many many more.

Getting back to "normal" life is somewhat difficult. For three weeks, Sparky and I had been together every minute. Tomorrow he goes back to work. It will be weird not having him around. I will miss him. For three weeks, we also did exactly as we pleased, with no schedule and no real responsibility. We spent today washing laundry, cleaning the car and weeding through the mail. There were meals to be prepared and jobs to be done. I think the most odd thing is that it feels like the world stood still while we were gone and nothing changed. It seems like someone pressed the "pause" button here while we gone. We kept morning forward on vacation while time stood still here. Of course I know that's not what happened but it feels that way.

I've received alot of feedback from many of you about this blog. I am honored and flattered that anyone would read it. I am no writer but maybe my pictures and stories have kept you entertained. Sparky and I feel very blessed that we have been married 25 years and that we were able to take this trip. It's been the trip of a lifetime with my very best friend. So many memories we will never forget. Now back to life as normal.

God is good. All the time. Thanks for listening.