Day 21 - Nebraska to Chicago

So 21 days, a little over 5600 miles and 12 states later, I'm back where I started. On my couch in Chicago, with Rumble staring forlornly out the window. We're both glad to be home but a little sad as well that our current adventure is over.

Trip today was fairly uneventful until we hit Illinois. The freeway I was on was shut down so we took a scenic tour through Illinois while we found a new route. The good news is, despite it being Friday of a long weekend and hitting the city pretty close to 5pm, we only hit bad traffic about 5 miles from home. Thanks goodness for small favors!

So the car is unpacked and I have 3 days to clean up and recover. I will be posting all my pictures online this weekend - there are several hundred and I will not be offended in the least if people skim through them but they are fun!

Some final thoughts. Out of all the places I went, excluding California because I am unfairly biased to that state, I would have to say that Park City Utah and Sedona were my favorites. Park City is ranked slightly higher but that may be because it is most fresh in my mind. I think Park City and Sedona were my favorites because they were new and I was able to spend so much outdoors. The hiking was also gorgeous and I am reminded of how much I miss doing this.

Best advice I received on my trip was from my sister and that was to do what I wanted. I had not made many plans outside of hotel reservations but I was still a little stressed as to a) packing tons of stuff in and b) trying to coordinate people to catch up. Once my sister made this comment, I relaxed even more. I stopped worrying so much about cramming stuff into every minute of every day. I also stopped worrying about making plans with people - I simply made my own plans and let people know when and where I would be and it worked out great!

And finally, you may ask, did I learn anything about myself on this trip? Well, I had many hours and miles with only Rumble and myself to talk to so yes, I learned some things about myself. Both good and bad. And I may or may not decide to share these learnings but I do plan to make some changes. :-)

So thanks to all who followed my journey and provided constant encouragement along the way. And I promise to keep you informed of future adventures!