Stop 17-The long road home

We left Utah after Arches and started the long drive home.  We only spent two nights on the road--the first night was near Vail, CO and the second night was in Kansas City, MO. We discussed how long we wanted to drive on the third day and then bit the bullet and drove the whole way home from Kansas City.  That's 17 hours, folks.  We drove and drove and drove and made it back by 3am.  I enjoyed (almost) every moment of the trip but I was super happy to be back in my bed.

I have traveled a lot all over the world, but not all that much in the US.  I can't say enough about what an experience this was.  I loved the freedom of having a car and no real itinerary and catching up with old friends along the way.  Everyone we met, old and new, was very proud of where they are from and offered great suggestions about where to go, what to see, and most importantly, what to eat.

The best parts for me were:
The drive out West and how excited we were about everything
Glacier National Park
Mt St Helens
The Marriott Courtyard in Portland--best beds ever
Having a great travel partner

The worst:
Driving back home!
The Motel 6 in Nevada

Danielle's final thoughts:

The Wild Wild West Adventure was:

31 days

8,341 miles of long and winding roads (in a Honda Civic, thanks Laurel!)

18 beautiful States plus BC!

unforgettable mother nature!

awesome friends house's to crash at

camping

cheap motels

a gazillion of pictures

$1,000 of gas

mixed cds from friends

karaoke in the car

only 1/2 of one arguement (the whole trip)

lots of memories from an unbelievable adventure

And thanks to Laurel, a good friend and traveling buddy, for putting up with me 24/7.

Seriously, it was PRICELESS!