Home, Sweet Home!

We are so happy to be home! We got home about 4:45 pm after stopping at the grocery store in Delano on our way home. We started out at 8:00 am this morning. The drive across the rest of South Dakota was a foggy one (see the photo below). Once we left southern Minnesota and started heading north to Rockford, I almost wept from the beauty of the changing leaf colors. I am hoping to get photos to share with you this week. We were eager to get home and there really weren’t any turnouts to pull over safely and take pictures. I was mesmerized by the reds, golds, yellows, and varying shades of green. I had forgotten how much I loved fall while growing up in Ohio.

As soon as we got home, Joe unpacked the car, and I took a shower! Two nights of sleeping in the car and I wanted clean clothes and a shower. It was heavenly. Megan had dinner planned for 6:00pm and we arrived in the kitchen just as dinner was ready to go on the table.

After dinner, Caleb asked Joe to play chess. Megan tells Joe that she had asked the kids to give us a chance to settle in (this means a chance for grandpa, grandma doesn’t do the chess thing). Joe insisted it was fine. Joe reported that he won the first game. Charlotte was next and Joe said he was winning until Caleb showed up and helped Charlotte beat him. They all were happy!

Grandpa and Charlotte BEFORE Caleb showed up to assist Charlotte with the win! Photo by Megan.

The dogs were excited to see us as well. Pan was a bit disappointed to hear he would not be getting a walk this evening as Joe is taking the evening to rest. The morning and evening walks will resume tomorrow most likely.

On the road trip we just completed – Road Trip # 3 during 2023 – we drove a total of 4,598 miles. It took us three days with ½ of a day spent in Yellowstone National Park to drive from Rockford, Minnesota to Bend, Oregon. From Bend, we drove to Woodland California in one day (6 hours of driving time). After a week in Woodland, we drove back to Rockford, Minnesota in three days with an hour spent driving a bit out of the way to Mount Rushmore. We are so ready to take a break from traveling until next spring when I (I haven’t told Joe, yet) would like to go to northern Minnesota and check out Lake Superior and visit the upper peninsula of Michigan.

Here are photos from our visit to Mount Rushmore yesterday. 

5:00 pm in the afternoon. This photo was taken from Mount Rushmore Road in front of the parking lot area (iPhone 10x).

A side view of Washington from a turnout on Mount Rushmore Road. (iPhone at 10x)

Fog photo in South Dakota at 9:00am 9/27/2023. At least the buildings help to break up the fog. The freeway fog was much denser. Our Subaru cameras reported that they could not see and were shutting down. This also meant no cruise control..