All the Way Home

All packed up, one final time

June 30, 2018 – The day had finally come for us to say goodbye to adventures and hello to our home and family. Adventures can be found anywhere, of course, so it’s not really a goodbye; however, the “everyday routine” will replace our “every day is something new” mindset. We got up early, again, and did the trip-routine: showered, packed, cleaned, locked-up, and left. This place had something odd, though. We needed to take the garbage with us. I am not a fan of that policy. Everything else about the place was good, so I hate to give it a poor mark, but garbage removal has always been a responsibility of the host everywhere else we have ever stayed. We have had to sort garbage and recyclables and put it in outside receptacles, but we have never had to take it off-site. It is odd to pack your garbage in with your belongings on the final day of a trip. Ick.

This was a rainy, foggy morning. In Grand Marais, we had rain, but just a mile or so down the road, it was thick fog. In places, visibility was very limited, and thus there were no views of the lake for a while. As we drove, the fog and rain dissipated, and we did get glimpses of our friend, Lake Superior. Before we left the North Shore, we did one quick stop at Gooseberry Falls. It was good to get in a quick, scenic walk. The travel day was mostly event-free (my favorite kind of travel day), but we did have one slow down for construction that lasted about fifteen minutes. Not bad, all things considered!

Foggy day

More fog along the way

Foggy, drippy mirror

Gooseberry Falls

One of the tunnels

Glimpse of the Duluth lift bridge, through an underpass

Traffic backups were way worse going north than going south.

And here we are at home!!

I did kind of make a mistake on the way home. I decided to message all the kids and tell them we were throwing ourselves a welcome home ice cream party and they were all invited. They responded nicely and told us they would be there; however, about an hour before we got home we got a call from David. He told me I was ruining his surprise welcome home party for us. The kids had already planned to be there when we arrived home, and we should not stop and get ice cream, as he had made cheesecake. Moms sometimes think they are the only ones who can plan things….MISTAKE! It was really nice to see those who could make it when we got home, and the cheesecake was super yummy. Can you believe I didn’t take any pictures? Maybe I’m all pictured-out.

Nah. That can’t be it. I must have been too busy enjoying myself to pause and take pictures.

We are home. Here are a few numbers from the trip.

Miles traveled: 5164.4

Elapsed running time for the car: 107 hours 37 minutes

Gas prices (after conversions from liters to gallons and Canadian to US dollars, as needed):

Most expensive=$4.27 in Nipigon, Ontario

Least expensive=$2.73 Delaware

Average price USA=$2.90

Average price Canada=$3.77

Total average=$3.36

Mileage 31.17 mpg

I have way more numbers and thoughts that I will share in future blogs. For now, suffice it to say that we are home and we are grateful beyond words for this wonderful anniversary trip.