There's no place like home

I finally pulled into my driveway today with no where to go and no plans to get there.

Wow. What a summer I've had so far.

A short list of the places I've been isn't so short. Trip 1: Amarillo, Palmdale, Palm Springs, Los Angeles County, Morro Bay, Mojave (CA), Mesquite (NV), Hanksville (UT). Trip 2: Amarillo, San Ysidro (NM), Bluff (UT), Kanab (UT), Minersville (UT), Ely (NV), Cisco (UT), Mack (CO), Bloomfield (NM). Trip 3: Albuquerque, Flagstaff (oh God, I'm in love with Flagstaff!!), the Golden Trout Wilderness (CA), Mammoth Lakes (CA), June Lake (CA), Yosemite NP, Salt Lake City, Logan (ok, pretty fond of Logan, too, but I'm non-committal--it may have just been the company I kept), St. Anthony (ID), Yellowstone NP, Jackson (WY), Big Piney (WY) and back to Albuquerque.

That's a lot of country to cover. A whole lot. How whole lot?

Trip 1: 5318 miles
Trip 2: 5353 miles
Trip 3: 7817 miles

Total miles driven: 18488. Total travel days: 44. Miles per day? Ok, let's be real about this. I spent 5 days backpacking in the Golden Trout Wilderness. I spent two nights in Palmdale, CA. Other than that, all were driving days. So that's actually only 38 days. Average 486 miles/day. The distance from New York City to Raleigh, NC. Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon.

That's a damn lot of driving day after day after day for more than a month.

I'm done driving. I'm sitting my ass at home for a while. I want to pick weeds out of my flower beds. I want to relax in one spot.

By the way. I wouldn't have missed a one of these trips for the world.

Oh yeah. I knew I was finally home because it rained on me today. For the first time in more than 3 weeks.