EPILOGUE: The Voyage Home

Being back is exhausting! "We'll post an update later tonight," turned into a day and a half of decompression, depression and recovery. We're back to "life." Colin produced an hour of news today and Emily spent her two hours in traffic (oh how she misses the open road).

The final leg of our trip, Flagstaff to Los Angeles, was marked by two distinct parts of the journey. The first part - mountainous desert and vast sandy plains - was characterized by desolation and openness. The second part - say, the part where you get on the I-15 just south of Barstow - was marked by good, old fashioned Los Angeles smog and stop and go traffic. Isis particularly didn't enjoy the traffic, continually updating our estimated arrival time to the point where her normally reliable travel time prediction was off by about 45 minutes. Isis forgot what L.A. traffic was like. So did we.

And is there a worse feeling in the entire world than blasting across America, open road at your feet, for nearly three weeks, only to have to hit the brakes for a stop-and-go final 45 miles to home?

Also, a tip for future travelers: Grab that last gas at the trucker rest stop thing in Arizona, because once you cross the border to Needles, they bend you over. Most expensive gas of the trip, but after crossing all that desert, you need it. And they know it. Ouch!

When we got home, we were greeted by two loved ones - Emily's mom, Jody, who prepared a fantastic welcome home picnic lunch for us, and, of course, JoJo, the world's cutest (and, we guess, oldest) puppy. JoJo was sad we'd left his potential brother/sister behind in Clarksville, but he's still top dog in this household, at least for now.

So now, we're back. It's all over. A 5200-mile journey across America, finally come to an end.

Thanks for coming along on the ride. We'll continue to post for a little while longer -- still some wrapping up and some fun "top three" lists to come -- if you'll keep reading.