School's out for summer...

Or, more accurately, vacation is out.  Today is my last day of road trippin’.  I am heading home.  I may stop at the Hoover Dam or I may decide that what is most important to me in this world is putting on flannel pajamas, ordering Thai food and reading in my bed. A bed that does not need to be inflated. A bed with covers that do not in any way shape or form suggest caterpillar cacoons or mummy sarcophagi. 

You see, driving from the Golden Spike National Historic Site to Zion National Park yesterday, it hit me.  Road weariness.  According to the directions I printed up for this trip I had 70 hours worth of driving planned for this 10 day excursion through just a small part of America.  If you add in the amount of time driving when in the parks it pretty much averages 9-10 hours a day.  I also stop to get gas, pee, and take photos of signs along the road.  In fact I would say about a quarter of my photos have been taken from inside the car.  I am a master of the photograph while driving technique.  I consider the wrist trap to be the greatest accessory of all time.

So, I propose that on my next trip (Face the Nation, 2012) I take a little more time getting around.  Less of a mad dash through states with more livestock than people.  Visits with friends nestled in amongst all the sightseeing. 

Oh the sites I have seen.  The wildflowers of Big Horn National Forest.  The formations in the Lehmann Caves.  Bison, everywhere.  An old west shootout.  A mine.  A thousand historical markers dedicated to Mormons and their early settler fortitude.  Historical markers dedicated to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid and their outlaw fortitude.  Then there is the smell of the pine forests in Colorado, or Zion after a rain. 

So this is where I leave you I guess.  A few more photos posted from the road and this summer will come to a close.  I will be heading back to work in a couple of weeks.  By tomorrow all my gear will be packed away in my closet and it will seem as though this trip happened years ago.  Just as the Hong Kong/Bali/Hawaii trip does.  The summer itself will feel both endless and non-existent.  Luckily I have about 3000 photos to prove I was there.