Final blog of 2012 cross-country trip.

I'm really playing catch-up now.  It was a long drive from Tim's house to the Grand Canyon, and we stayed there until sunset.  It was as beautiful as ever.  I kept watching Brandon's face to see his reaction since this was his first visit.  He and Meredith seemed to enjoy it as much as Paul and me.

 I didn't do as much walking on this visit since I was a little under the weather, but I enjoyed it anyway.  After a quick supper from Micky D's, we headed out to Holbrook where we spent the night.  When we got there, I saw the WigWam Motel right beside our hotel.  We could have spent the night in a TeePee!!!  Shucks! 

 

We were all tuckered out, so we were very thankful for our beds, even if the beds weren't in TeePees.

The next morning we continued our journey toward home through the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert.  Looking at all the "wood" that is now stone made me think of all the wonderful things of God, even how the Flood caused these trees to be submerged in water and eventually being turned to stone through the process of minerals taking the place of the rotted wood.  It seems strange to me, though, that so many people don't realize that the Flood caused this.

We continued on our way to Yukon, Oklahoma through the rest of Arizona, then New Mexico, where we made a quick WalMart stop for yarn and sunglasses.  Then on to Amarillo, Texas where we ate supper at the Big Texan. After our tummies were full we drove and drove and drove.  We didn't get to Yukon until 1:00 a.m.  We crashed into our beds!  The next morning after a quick breakfast we were on our way again, next stop: Kodak, Tennessee.  A beautiful drive!

A beautiful drive, but through lots of traffic.  Yep, I needed lots of knit therapy (the reason for the yarn stop in NM, lol).

The next morning, we finally crossed the North Carolina border--our home state!  Tennessee mountains are pretty, but NC mountains are even more beautiful!

We made a special stop in Raleigh to celebrate Meredith's birthday, which is the 22nd.  We had this surprise planned since the beginning of the trip.  She was definitely surprised and excited that we had stopped at the CheeseCake Factory for dinner, which was delicious!  The rest of the way home I could hardly keep my eyes open.  I was so sleepy!  I had no trouble seeing this site, though!

No matter how far we may roam, there's no place like home!

 Just how far did we roam?

We were gone eleven days.  Three of those days the van sat still at Tim's house.  So, this mileage reflects eight days on the road!  No wonder we're all so tired!  But, we had such a good time with Brandon and Meredith and spending time with Tim, Maryann, Ethan, Kate, and Natalie.  Make sure to click on the "current pictures" icon to the right of the blog to see all of our pictures.  Thanks for coming along with us on the travel blog.  We love you all.