HOME!

This is tortuous.    We are on CD #7.  Las Vegas is within our grasp, not that we want it, but at least it's a landmark telling us we are getting close to home.

All of a sudden, out in this desert, we come to some coulee walls, and a designation of the White River Narrows Archeological district.  It does look like a river flowed right through here.  Later I discover that this area is full of petroglyphs, some fifteen feet high.  The one here has large mammals, human footprints, and geometric lines that it is theorized symbolizes a kind of animal trap.  Who knew, out here in the flat desert we would come across a river bed and ancient art?

At last, we are on the outskirts of Las Vegas.  The temperature gauge hits 113 degrees!  The wind is ferocious!

We use the opportunity to make calls home while we have bars.  

Outside of Vegas, the dust swirls and the thoughts we had of staying someplace like Barstow for our last night on the road quickly evaporate (pun intended.) 

Even though we will drive more than twice as far today than any other day on the road, we are grateful to be driving into the night, knowing it will cool off.

 As we hit the outskirts of LA, I think of the song about the sun going down over Santa Monica Boulevard.  

In three more hours, we pull up at the house.  We've driven 12,974 miles, and it is day 110.  We are both in  some netherworld, thinking about where all we've been and what we've seen.  And how it feels to be home.

It will take some time to sort out our memories and thoughts about this marvelous adventure.  And how lucky we are to have made this once in a lifetime trip.