Day 68 - It's coming to an end

 It was a cool start to the morning, but it was back to a dry cool and crisp which felt great.  It was an excellent way to wake up as the last time the family would be together in Dover.  It’s hard to believe that this was it, but we were actually starting the process of going home.  We had a “must go” breakfast full of whatever we had left before packing up camp.  Then we grabbed one last picture of Amy and the boys in front of the camper before we left.


We knew when we planned the trip that today would be a long day of driving, but both Amy and I forgot just how long until we plugged it into the GPS and were told that we had just under 7 hours of road time.  Ugh.  Well, we better get started.  Fortunately we had seen most of what we wanted to see of the Grand Tetons so we were ready to go right away.  However, I wanted one more shot at the Snake River overlook.  It was much better this morning!





We left the park and then made a stop in Jackson hole for some fancy donuts to help the travels be more digestible (you see what I did there - ha!).  And of course, while in Jackson Hole, we snapped a picture of the famous antler arches.



Little did we know though that just down the road is the World Record for antler arches.  1) Who knew that was a thing and 2) take that Jackson Hole!

The drive went, as Amy and I both agreed later, much faster than we would have thought.  We covered a lot of miles and even got a bonus state along the way - Idaho (even if Idaho was less than 10 miles, it counts)!  Much of the drive was on two lane roads and so we encountered a number of points where we had to stop and let traffic go the other way.  Patience was the name of the game.


As we entered Utah, we ended up going on a scenic, rural route that came in the north side of Salt Lake City.  It was so rural and scenic that as we came around one of the bends, there were cows in the road.  Not quite as close as the bison, but far more startling when you’re moving along at 60 mph vs 15 mph!


At the end of the long day of driving, we arrived back in Salt Lake City (man we’ve really spent more of our vacation here than I thought) and checked into the hotel.  It was actually pretty early so we let the boys jump in the pool to explore it right away.  I spent the time while they were in the pool planning my route home.  In secret, I only believed there as a 50% chance we would finish our trip here so I really didn’t invest a lot of time to plan the route home.  Ha!  


After an hour or so in the pool, we dragged the boys out (almost literally as Robinson was pretending to be a sea lion) and walked down the street for a celebratory dinner at the Mexican restaurant La Fountain. 



It was a night of celebration both for the end of the family adventure together and Robinson’s birthday (since I would miss his actually birthday as I drove across the country).  It was a delicious meal and Robinson and I became nacho buddies! 





Amy quietly informed the waitress that we were celebrating Robinson’s birthday and then this happened.


Can you see the surprise in his face?  I guess we hadn’t done this much because his mind was BLOWN that this happened to celebrate his birthday.  We all split the ice cream with him and he just beamed about the experience.  As we left, he went around the restaurant thanking everybody for making it so special.  It was a great Dad moment for me.  I wasn’t emotional much on this trip, but between him being excited then having such great manners and knowing this was the end of the trip, I about lost it.


We walked back to the hotel and we all did the pool/hot tub for round 2.  It was there I remembered that I had promised the boys that there would be something on the trip that they would remember for the rest of their lives.  I asked if there were any candidates and got some of the highlights from the trip

  • Waterton Lakes - Surrey bike ride, Beavertails, and Barnaby

  • Siesta the sloth

  • Close encounters with the furry kind (bison)

  • Antelope Island

  • Amy’s bear scare

  • Prairie dogs

  • Rogue River rafting

  • Crater Lake cliffdiving



As the pool was closing, we headed to bed to prepare for an early morning.  It took everybody a while to get to sleep, I think we were all nervous about both the flight and the transition back home.


Total mileage - 10,697 miles

# States/Provinces - 19 / 2


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