Success

Well, the one down side is that any vacation I take for the rest of my life will have to be compared to this road trip, and I have a feeling they will fail to meet the bar that was set by the last 21 days. But other than that, I can't complain! What an amazing journey it was. I am dumbfounded at the amount of memories I now have in my head. Random moments have been popping up the last few days. Like seeing Yellowstone Lake the first time and being astonished at just how blue and clear the water was. Or watching the sunset from my hotel room on the Pacific Ocean. Or remembering how stressful driving through Chicago and Boston was. Or driving through Wind River canyon in Wyoming and becoming so speechless the only thing I could say was, "wow.........." Or in Erie, PA, as I was sitting at a stop light, a van drove through the intersection in front of me, and the little girl in the back seat was pressing her face up against the window and making a goofy face towards my camera. These are the best souvenirs I got from the trip, and I'm going to treasure them for a lifetime.

So, where do I go from here? First, it's back to the real world. I need to mow the lawn this evening, and then tomorrow morning, it's back to work for the first time since June 12. Surprisingly, I don't feel too bad about going back to work (I do about the lawn, though!). Three weeks away from work for an adult is just as good as a summer vacation for a kid. So I'm ready for that. But I do have one more trip related issue, and that is the Video. I've been working on it for most of the day yesterday and today, and I just about have a long "director's cut" put together. Then comes adding music. Then lastly, cutting it down to a "theatrical cut" so that you don't get bored when you watch it! Hopefully I should have it done by the end of next weekend, if not before. If you are interested in seeing it, check back here occasionally, or keep your eye on my Facebook page.

Lastly, I want to thank some people. First off, thanks to you for reading this blog. I hope you enjoyed it, I hope you (somewhat) felt like you got to travel across the country with me, and most importantly, I hope I gave you a nice distraction to break up your work days! Thanks to those of you who followed me on Twitter and Facebook. Thank you Natasha for offering me your guest room, and for showing me all the fun Billings has to offer! Thanks to Laura and Jojo for letting me stop by, relax, and take some great pictures of Lexi! Thanks to Vince, Elaine, Ty, Luke, my Grandma, and my Grandpa for stopping by and celebrating with me. Thanks to Kevin, Toni, and Owen, Paul, Annie, and Drew, Sarah, and Anne for stopping by and celebrating with me on night two (with special thanks to Dad for grilling a great dinner!). Thanks to Thatcher, Liz, and Soren for celebrating with me, and helping me on the very last leg of my journey! And thanks to my Mom, my Dad, Eric, and Julie for all your support, for celebrating with me, and most of all for putting up with me!

Two years of planning, three weeks of driving, a lifetime of memories. It was nothing short of a complete success.