The last day of the trip...

Well, here it is.

The tale of the drive home.

The suspense is awful for you I'm sure.

We started out at midnight from Mom's so that we could get through Fort Worth before rush hour.

We got there about 4am, still way dark out except for all the street lights.

What took us over an hour before heading south, only took us maybe 15 minutes this time going north!

Yes, we back tracked the same exact way.  

Amazing what happens when everyone is home sleeping!

We hit heavy fog outside of Wichita Falls and put up with that until almost to Amarillo (at least 2 hrs).

The girls were patient with snacks and juice for breakfast in the truck.

So when we hit Amarillo around lunch time, it was time for a Chick-fil-a stop.

It was really good being that it would be our last one for quite some time to come.

There are none up here around us.

Boo.

Down the road we went again, headed for New Mexico.  We decided to change our route being that the forecast for Wyoming was snow all along the interstate.  Didn't want to deal with that.

Sorry, but there are no pics of New Mexico that are worth showing.

I've never been impressed with the state, even when we were stationed there.

To me it just looks dirty, run down and there is trash all along the side of the highway.

Don't want to see that.  Not impressive.

Before we got to Albuquerque, the winds started to pick up and you could see the clouds billowing up everywhere.  Luckily, we didn't get into any rain.  But on the radio we heard that Amarillo and SE Colorado were getting a few strong storms.  Glad that we missed that.  

We finally stopped in Gallup, NM for the night.  17 hrs on the road.  We were ready for dinner and just relaxing in the hotel.  After all of that we happened to see on the Weather Channel that it just wasn't heavy rain and wind that we missed through Amarillo and SE Colorado.  We had missed out on the...

TORNADOS!!! that went through the area.  And they all occurred during the time we would have been driving through the area if we hadn't have changed our route.

Lovely!!!

Not that waking up to snow and ice everywhere was wonderful.  The doors of the truck were froze shut from the freezing rain.  Luckily the roads were clear because of the salt that was put down.

Nothing like a little excitement to start the day off with at 5am.

So finally down the road again through the Navajo Nation to see all the rock formations along the highway.  So awesome!!  We don't get a good pic of Shiprock because of all the construction along the highway and we surely didn't want to get off track because of the time constraints.

Home was calling us.

We eventually end up in Colorado and Utah were there was still snow all along the highway from the night before.  Very pretty.  Almost had a magical feel to it all.

Just glad it wasn't on the roads.

We finally start seeing some very familiar sights in Utah that we have passed many times before on past trips.

And after stopping in Moab for and early lunch, we just couldn't pass Arches National Park up, again.

Up the side of the hill we went.

And of course Glenn had to stop to see how far up we had come from the highway below and to look at the fault line in the hill across the way.  You know I wasn't liking that with the whole heights thing you know.  :)  Especially being the edge was on my side.  yea.

We saw Sheep rock.  

It is thought that there used to be an arch there because of all the rock debris below it off to the left.

Very possible.

The girls loved this formation the most.  It was cute!

Then there were the petrified dunes.

The Great Wall.

It is one huge continuous formation along the entry side of the park.

There was Balanced Rock.

Very cool.

Hard to imagine that it is still sitting there on an eensy weensy bit of rock underneath it, as you walk around it.

We had to make a stop to see the North Window.

We met some lovely people from Sandpoint, Id. who said we really must come up to that end of our state and visit.  They even suggested that we move there.  When I when the lottery, I'll see.  They were very kind with taking a family pic for us.  Kind of sad Brendon wasn't with us.

Glenn and the girls had to go check things out even more and were climbing around the edge of the window on the right hand side.  My stomach wasn't doing so good with that.  Oh my nerves!

We left North Window, safe and sound, to see the garden area.

Gorgeous!

Then off to see Delicate Arch and then to the Devil's Garden area.

The walls of stone in this area were amazing!

Breath taking.

A short walk between the walls.

Some cheesy touristy shots.

To see Tunnel Arch.

Then it was back in the car, passing by the Fiery Furnace again.

What we thought was going to be a quick trip through the park, ended up being 4hrs!

And we didn't get to see everything.  We were rushing around like mad just to see things.

We are definitely going to have to come back again so that we can really do justice with seeing the park and all its glory.

Back on the road again, hitting Salt Lake during rush hour.  That was loads of fun.  Must do that again soon.  Not.  

Sorry Bev for not stopping by to see you.  I will surely have to get with you next time we go through the area to see if we can have a quick visit with you.

We got something quick to eat after we were well out of the Salt Lake area and then ran into heavy rain from the Idaho state line all the way to Twin Falls, in the dark.  Yea.  Then after Mountain Home, there was thick fog until we were a few miles from the edge of Boise.

To say that we were REALLY glad to get home at 11:45pm was a BIG understatement.  We only grabbed pillows and the bath bag and hit the showers.  Then the bed.  Everything else could stay in the truck until we felt like getting up the next day.  Which wasn't early I must say.

But I must say that the side trip through the park was well worth getting home late.  I would have kicked myself if we would have passed it by, knowing what I do now.

And if that wasn't all exciting, we happened to hear that the little town of Goodnight, Tx (that you have to drive right through on 287 to get to Amarillo) had a tornado pass right through it the same day (but later) we went through it on the way home.  FAB!!!

No extra long, 1900 miles trips for me for a very long time.

I'm getting to old for it.