Columbia, MO to Home (Day 22)

The last day. Wow, How could that be? It seems like this trip should last forever, but alas, here it is, the very last day of driving, the last destination is back home. While it is bittersweet, and with all the lead up and planning, it just doesn't seem possible that it could be complete, but I guess the staying in a different hotel, sleeping in a different bed almost every night makes you crave your own. I guess if travelling were like being in your own home, we would stay on the road all of our lives. There really are so many wonderful things to be seen, touched, experienced, that a trip like this only makes you dream of the next.

We took our time this morning getting up and getting out the door. It was that sort of fear that the sooner we left, the sooner it was over, I guess. Mom and Tony, who are always the first to start moving, were still the first moving. Jon and I were awakened a little later, thank goodness. Those guys get up so early that our days of leaving the hotels at 7, were "late" to them. Jon and I, we like to sleep in a little when we can! Once we rolled out of bed, Jon headed off to make him one last breakfast in a hotel. He has really gotten good at that, and when I went to check on him, I found him standing there with the Waffle Maker waiting patiently!

Amazingly, his waffle was as close to perfection as it could have been! I am so proud!

Once we got our plates fixed, they came in to start closing down the breakfast bar, so we had great timing! We asked Jon if he wanted to get one more swim in before we checked out, but he was ready to get on the road. So with that, we posed for a few last minute photos at the hotel and packed up the car and off we went. Next stop, home! It would take nearly 7 hours to get there even without our stops, so we got on with it.

We made a few stops along the way, but decided to push back lunch and make it more of an early dinner once we crossed in to Kentucky. We knew we were in the south then as we stopped to have our meal at a Cracker Barrel in Paducah, KY.

It wasn't long then until we crossed into Tennessee, and Jon let out a welcomed cheer! The familiar sight of trees lining the interstate welcomed us into our home state! What a sight they were! When you drive across the country, you really see the vast differences from state to state. One will be flat and barren and another will be covered in mountains stretching to the heavens. Still others will be dry and hot with sand and rocky cliffs popping up from the desert with flat tops or vast canyons carved through layers of different colored rock. This country is beautiful, truly beautiful. When we were on the Pike's Peak Cog Railway, our conductor told us when we reached a certain point that we were seeing Inspiration Point, the place where Katherine Lee Bates got the inspiration for the song America the Beautiful, well, she may have gotten the inspiration there, but I bet if she had seen the wonders that I saw on this trip, the song may have been slightly different. 

Getting this opportunity to travel as we did came from a lot of hard work and planning. Tony put in countless hours at work and I put in countless hours online planning. Being able to take our son and my Mom with us made it a priceless family vacation with enough memories to last a lifetime. We would also not have been able to do it without my sister and my nephew Felix helping us out. They took care of our dogs and watered the plants and even mowed the grass! As we pulled into the driveway and made our way to drop Mom off, it was surreal. Nothing had changed at home, but we had sure been changed by the experience. Now the planning can begin for other vacations, because now we have the "bug".