Day 22 - Heath to Home

Our last day of the trip was only about 370 miles so it would be a short day. We decided to get another early start to avoid the heat plus we thought it would be fun to stop at Cabela's just off of I-70 in WV. This morning was a bit more humid that yesterday. The ground fog was a bit thicker and stayed with us for the rest of stay in OH and into WV.

 

 

We arrived at Cabela's around 9am. The store has quite the display of animals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike found a new knife for his collection and Michele found a little top in pink camo for her soon to be born niece. After about an hour, we were ready to hit the road again.

We saw this truck carrying what looked like gigantic cigars!

The morning ground fog and flat farm lands of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, made way to the mountains of West Virginia.

 

 

We had our last lunch planned in Cumberland, MD at D'Atri. The food was very good. They also had quite the bakery inside with pies, cakes, and other pastries. Michele said you can never go wrong with a restaurant that has a bakery. She was right. Yum!

As we neared Leesburg, we all split off to head to your homes. It was strange riding the last 4 miles without Mike and Tom's headlights in the mirrors. They had been there for the last 3 weeks and nearly 7k miles.

We rolled into the driveway right at 3pm. This was quite the trip with so many great experiences. We saw 5 amazing National Parks (6 if you include the quick lunch at the Grand Canyon) and 2 National Monuments. We crossed the US from VA to CA though 16 states. We experienced the vastness of the Bonneville Salt Flats, the solitude of US 50 across Nevada, the peacefulness of timelessness of the Giant Forest and the brilliant night sky of Sequoia NP. We saw the spectacle of mankind along the Las Vegas strip. We were surprised by the scale and color of Kings Canyon. We were struck by the huge variety of scenery and animals in Yosemite. We got a little taste of the brutal heat and desolation at Death Valley. We rode the highest continuous ribbon of road in the US (Trail Ridge Road at 12,000') to the lowest land location in the US (Badwater at 288' below sea level). Best of all we got to experience all of this with great friends. This trip has supplied us with plenty of memories and many stories that we'll be looking back on for years to come. Now where shall we ride to next?