September 24, 2010 – Day 43 (271 Miles).
Today we made home. We unpacked. Jan did laundry, got groceries, got the cable restarted, and later went to the high school homecoming parade (a couple of floats had family on them). I got the mail restarted, mowed the front lawn, and got a haircut (the first one in 7 weeks).

September 23, 2010 – Day 42 (402 Miles).
Though today was a travel day, it was a good & interesting day. Along the way we stopped in Winterset, IA to visit with Alan & Diana. Unfortunately Diana wasn’t available. If Alan decides to give up his day job he would be a very good tour guide & Chamber of Commerce ambassador for his community. He showed one of seven cover bridges of the Madison County and showed us some the locations where the movie was made. Also on the tour was John Wayne’s birthplace and related sites. He then showed other sites including homes (etc.) of the Underground Railroad. There was even a peacock. After good lunch with him at a sport bar, he finished the tour at their beautiful home. We continue our trip east stopping at a few rest stops. The last one was near Tiffin, IA. This is one of the most unique & pretty rest stop with each of the 9 picnic had a backstop having an unique quote. The inside & outside of the building was also attractive & unique. We saw a peacock, a Pamida (a small town Wal-Mart; Iowa people understand) and there was more. We finally saw the first car with Tennessee plates, leaving only Hawaii that we didn’t see. It’s seems fitting that we stayed at the same motel as the first 2 nights of this trip and we walked the Southpark Mall. A little trivia: it’s 455+ miles across NE & 300+ miles across IA.

September 22, 2010 – Day 41 (449 Miles).
Today was a travel day to Lincoln, NE and basically nothing much to report again. By the way it’s 402.78 miles across WY. Today we were in our 12th state of the trip with 3 repeat states to go. The wind was quite strong driving, but it felt good not driving in mountains. The last couple of days in CO & NE we saw oil rigs (some working & some not). We didn’t see energy windmills but saw several working old fashioned water windmills filling stock tanks for cattle and some horses. We also saw some llamas. After an evening bite, we did a little socializing with a couple from Wisconsin at the pool. Our room was on the top floor and we had a balcony which we used soon.

September 21, 2010 – Day 39 (274 Miles).
Today we headed south to Broomfield near Denver and spent time with Janet (friend & dinner mate from our first World Cruise). She gave us a tour of her home and around the Del Webb retirement center where her home is, including the community center (very nice). She took us to a very nice & enjoyable restaurant. We enjoy socializing and could have visited more. The one stop missing is to see Fannette (another friend & dinner mate from our first World Cruise), but she is in the Dallas area. We then headed north and west to a short visit in Rocky Mountain National Park. The routes to and from the park were as beautiful as the park. Then back to Wyoming to spend the night in Cheyenne.

September 20, 2010 – Day 38 (384 Miles).
Today was another travel day to Laramie, WY and basically very similar to yesterday trip (more mountains and different terrain). We did have a great Fairfield Inn waiting for us at our stop, with pool and all.

September 19, 2010 – Day 37 (353 Miles).
Today was a travel day to Ogden, UT and basically nothing to report. However the terrain was ever changing. Many of the energy windmills were seen and we met truckloads of parts going west. The CRV will be glad to home & out of the mountains.