Road Trip, Day 26

I'm home!

Left Ogallala, Nebraska, this morning at 9:15 a.m.  Temperature was -4.  Headed across Nebraska which is pretty boring except for encountering the Platte River all the time.  The other thing I noticed is that they label the interstate the Eisenhower Interstate System.  Kind of nice to give him credit--the interstate system was a great invention.

The Iowa sign occurred somewhere in Council Bluffs while I was in traffic and not in the right lane to see it, so don't know what it said.  Western Iowa is quite interesting, actually.  Not flat at all.  Lots of rolling hills with prosperous looking farms.  Had planned to stay in Atlantic, Iowa, but when I got there, wasn't tired, so decided to push on to Des Moines.

Saw an interesting series of signs on the way:  Save our farms!  Build in the city.

Mr. Garmin was quite cranky about the change in plans, wanting me to get off at every exit and turn back.  Tried to punch in Des Moines, but tough to do when you're rocketing down the freeway at 80 mph.  Besides, he has a decided preference for addresses and I didn't have one.  Finally had the bright idea to punch the home button which would, of course, route me through Des Moines.  Discovered I wasn't as far away as I thought, so decided to keep driving and stop if I got tired.  It kept telling me I would get home around 8:30 p.m.  Considering that I lost an hour with the time change from mountain to central, that would be 7:30 by my body clock.  I kept watching the miles go down and the time get shorter and somehow I wasn't tired any more.  Just cranked the tunes and kept going.

The biggest feature of Des Moines was the number of cars in the ditch or the median.  One had flipped completely and was smashed.  The roads were completely cleared by today and it was sunny, although VERY cold.  Highest it got was 10 degrees.  They must have had some of the great storm Tuesday.

I was quite happy to see the Minnesota welcomes you sign.  Was even happier to see the Welcome to Saint Anthony Village sign!  I discovered I'm only a mile from city hall per Mr. Garmin.

So, thus endeth the great road trip.  I traveled 5,155 miles in 26 days, 709 of them today.  I had an amazing time, saw some good friends and some wonderful sights, but it feels good to be home and I know I will enjoy sleeping in my own bed tonight.  Have dragged everything in from the car, including all the frozen water and Coke that was in the trunk.  It was one whole degree when I arrived.  I'm just thankful none of the Coke exploded all over the trunk!  Have it sitting in the laundry room in case it decides to do anything funky while it's thawing.  Too bad I didn't get to see friends in Colorado Springs and Wichita on the way home, but I think I made the right decision to swing north around the storm.  The highways were all fine.

I have to close with a funny story about bottled water.  We stocked up at Trader Joe's while we were in Santa Barbara.  Joey supposedly bought a case, although it ended up being two cases.  Pat and Mary also bought some.  So, here I was with three cases of water (I already had one) traveling around in my trunk.  When I went to take the folks to the airport the last morning, something had to give so I could get their luggage in the trunk.  We took out a case and set it on the ledge in the parking lot.  I just didn't want to drag it into the room.  Decided it would be interesting to see if it was still there when I returned.

When I got back, the water was gone, and someone had parked in my space.  I hope they enjoyed it!