On July 22, 2011 we left the Amana Colonies and started the last legs/days of THE Trip, heading back to SE Michigan. It was still HOT, and neither Man nor I could stand much more, and so, we called it a done deal and headed Big Butt's nose towards the stick built.
Our first days drive was about 220 miles via I 80, ending near Joilett, Illinois. One of our "rest" stops this day was at the famous Iowa 80 truck stop. This is no everyday truck stop, no siree, this is famous, large, big, huge, and the products they sell! WHOOOEEE. It is so large they even have 18-wheelers parked inside, several custom painted tractors and at least one full sized (53 feet long) trailer. No, we are not driving a "big rig 18-wheeler", yet we always find some little item or two that solve issues in Big Butt or Tana. It is a good thing we don't live near here or travel by any more than we do! We could spend hours and lot$ of dollar$ in this place.
I did not take a lot of photos this travel day, however, I did spy this crop duster and I clicked off 9 shots trying to capture him. He was flying fast and we were running at about 60 MPH, it was my challenge of the day.
The second day we ended up in one of our fav places, Elkhart Indiana, it was approximate 120 miles, again via I 80, but, we had to go around the Chicago area, which I HATE. So, we allowed an entire day for that process. For the most part it was a pretty good ride, not like some previous treks through that area that were nightmares, really horrible nightmares. We spent 2 nights in Elkhart, just resting, quiet time!
Our last days ride was from Ekhart Indiana to our home in SE Michgan, about a 120 miles. We crossed the state line into Michigan on one of the back roads as we reluctantly headed home. (I was reluctant, Man was ready to be home. That is about normal for us, we accept it, and try to laugh about it.)
We arrived back at the stick built in time to catch my double tiger lilies in full bloom:
Whew! We made it, thanks for coming along with Man and I on THE Trip. Tomorrow, I will rerun the retrospective I did last July. And, yes, we are planning, contemplating, researching, THE Trip, THE Encore. Stay tuned.
.
2 comments:
I enjoyed the 8.5 months, plus the follow-up. Great pictures and your descriptions are priceless.
Thank you for taking all of us along on THE Trip. I have enjoyed every post (whether I commented or not!) I know it has been quite a bit of work to produce all of these posts and it was fun to have THE Trip go on even after it was over in real life.
Can't wait for THE Trip, The Encore!!!
Post a Comment