This morning, we arose knowing that this was our last day on the road — the 20th day of our twice half-cross-country Great American Roadtrip — and that we when we slept next, it’d be in our own beds. We headed out early this morning, figuring that an early start would get us home mid-afternoon.

Truthfully, the drive was uneventful. We pushed as fast as we legally could, and made good time back to The Lou. I’d had no idea that Omaha was less than seven hours away, and I expect I’ll go back to visit again in the near future, spending a little time in my old haunts.

It was a great trip, crossing twelve states and covering 6275 miles in all, with most of that driving coming in the fourteen days of the first and third weeks. It’s funny that the driving was never exhausting, never boring, and I enjoyed every moment of it. I thoroughly enjoyed learning the idiosyncrasies of my new Jeep, and starting to figure out what functional additions I need to make to it.

However, the big thing that happened on the trip was that the three of us figured out a way of all living in the same hotel room every day for twenty days, and living in the same Jeep for twenty days, all without killing each other. That’s pretty cool.

For years, I’ve been talking about how I’d love to move to Idaho or Montana. For me, this trip was an opportunity to check out some of that territory — spending a week there between Glacier NP and Yellowstone NP — and see if Montana lived up to the images in my head. In a couple of words, it did, and probably has turned up the temperature on my desire to get up there just a little bit.

Another great realization is that Yellowstone NP is only three (kinda long) days or so away from here by driving. That accessibility means I will likely be making plans to revisit Yellowstone over the upcoming years.

Yep, it was a great trip…. sleeping in my bed tonight will be great too!