Finally

Day 48    May 23, 2015  HOME!!!

We arrived home this afternoon.  It has been a wonderful trip and would do it again in a heartbeat, however, maybe not this year.  We put on our RV 6000 miles and about  the same on our little CRV, toad car.  Our visit took us to 20 states and national parks plus two totally spectacular slot canyons.   The national parks were:  Petrified Forest, Painted Dessert, Grand Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Death Valley, Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Sequoia,  Kolob Canyon, Canyonland, Arches and Capitol Reef.  The state parks were in Texas:  Palo Duro, Utah:  Kodacrome Basin, Dead Horse, and Nevada:  Red Rock Canyon (BLM).  In Arizona there was Monument Valley and Antelope Canyon that belonged to the Navajo also a National Monument  called Canyon De Chelly (pronounce "can d shay") .  There were 13 states  that we rolled across.

To name a favorite is not possible.  Each park had its own special personality.   However, Jan like Palo Duro the best.   Something that kept going through my mind was how tough the settlers were that came across these areas.  Twice we followed rivers from their heads to full size.  The Virgin River started at the campground we stayed in Glendale, UT and we saw it cutting through some of the amazing rocks we saw on the whole trip (Utah, Arizona and Nevada) and the other river was the Colorado.  We followed the Colorado from the Grand Canyon through Canyonlands NP and into the Rocky Mountains.

Our desire to rush home was never an issue.  If fact, it wasn't until we left Colorado did the "Barn horse syndrome" hit.  There were no more scheduled places to see only the road home.  I'll have to say that knowing that  Nebraska was possibly a wind tunnel did not excite us.  However, the wind did not affect us there and instead we were very impressed with it.   When we drove across Missouri  we were looking at going through St. Louis at morning rush hour.  Our GPS, which had never lied to us on this trip, told us to take I-64 through the city.  Being rather skeptical, I had already planned another route.  The determining factor was going to be the traffic density at our turn off.  Traffic was light so, here we go through St. Louis.  THANK YOU GPS (it's a Garmin).

If for some reason the photo website became lost, I will give you the link again.    http://montes-capture-the-moment.smugmug.com/Travel/2015-Western-Trip/i-22FX3vW    Feedback on the photos would be appreciated (tell me your favorite pictures).

I hope you enjoyed the trip, we certainly did.

We are thinking Acadia next.