Sleichter Summer Vacation, Day 10: Going Home

After taking this crazy trip to Yellowstone in multiple versions four times, we learned one thing: power through for your drive home. So, we were loaded up in the car and on the road by 7:30 a.m. We had eaten all our stock of pop tarts, so it was a cheap McDonalds breakfast for most (Plexus pink drink plus two iced teas for mom), and hit the road.

Google maps has served us well for most of the trip, but occasionally it’s priority setting of avoiding construction or direct route has sent us on some questionable routes. So when the signs say to go straight but the Google map app said take Wyoming highway 120, we weren’t 100 percent sure which way to go. With a minimal turn-around, we decided to follow the Google maps. And, we found the best highway we have been on the entire trip. It was wonderful, flat-ish, smooth, fast, and not very busy. Thanks to that highway, and Wyoming speed limits, we cut across Wyoming in 10 hours, with a stop for lunch.

But I’d regret not taking about that drive. You know how they say if you don’t like Kansas weather, wait five minutes? Well, if you don’t like Wyoming topography, drive five miles. We started in the snowy mountains, 44 degrees, feels like winter. We drove through savannah, dry brush pasture. We drove through cliffs of rock towering above, marked with which prehistoric eras the fossils within the rock originated. We drove through tunnels carved through mountains, saw train tunnels that looked like mine shafts, saw boulders bigger than a semitruck and could track where they had rolled down the mountainside. We saw rock slides and mud slides and arid areas. And we passed lakes of about every size and shape.

When it came time to decide where to eat lunch, we decided to make it kid friendly. We found a playground with picnic benches on the Platte River. That way, John and Natalie could play on the playground and burn off some energy; Maggie and Katie could walk the trail and get some quiet time away from siblings; Lainie could wander between the two (the joy of being a middle-tween), and Jay and I could have a space to work on the meal and plan. The plan seemed to work, because everyone tolerated the next leg of the journey, about 4 hours in the van to Colorado.



Colorado?! Is Colorado really on your way from Wyoming to Kansas? Well, we discovered a few years ago that Julesburg, Colorado, is a mere 6 miles from I-80, and has a delicious, little, family-friendly café called D&J’s Café. They have all the favorites for our family: corn dogs, salads, hot dogs, grilled cheese, hamburgers, pizzas, mozzarella sticks, chicken fried steak, and good iced tea. (Seriously, make the detour. It’s worth it, and it helps keep a nice family in business.) And, this little detour meant I could run one last mile, to reach my goal of a mile of exercise in every state we visited.



The proximity to home meant, no matter how long those detours took, we would be powering through. Clay Center or bust, and thank goodness, because I think at this point in the trip, my kids may have been losing their minds. What surprised me though, was the slumber-party like atmosphere in the back three seats between my girls. John crashed out in the front row after a bedtime book and prayers. But the girls stayed up giggling together. It meant the world to me seeing my older two including the younger two in their conversations. I'm guessing that would be the highlight of the drive home for Nat, for sure.

Then back on the road, with 5 hours or so to go. Another GasBuddy look-up told us to stop in Ogallalah for gas. The kids begging meant we stopped somewhere for ice cream. And since Amigos was right down the street from Dairy Queen, I even got my beloved crisp chicken burrito with ranch from Amigos! Even a day later, that was the highlight of the drive home. 

Finally around York, the kids all fell asleep. After much begging, Jay let me drive home from York, since I was too hyped up on caffeinated tea and nearness to home to sleep. I woke up a little before Concordia, after seeing a couple deer on the highway, and wishing for another set eyes to watch for those buggers. (Tell me why hundreds of antelope in Wyoming and Montana know to avoid the roads, and Kansas and Nebraska deer just jump across at will?!) 

But we made it! More than 4,400 miles, 10 days, 10 states, 3 national parks, more than a dozen national forests, probably 6 reservations, home around 2:30 a.m.