1,500 Miles Later...

Days 12-14: Fort Collins, CO to Atlanta, GA.  In an attempt to avoid rush hour traffic into Denver and give road conditions a chance to improve, we didn’t leave the hotel on Friday until 8:10.  The temperature was 16°.  We drove through falling snow and overcast skies, sometimes icy roads for 200 miles in Colorado and another 100 or so in Kansas.

Snow-coated wipers

Finally skies cleared and we began seeing much more green as we neared Salina and headed south on I-35 toward Oklahoma City.  Our logging 700 or so miles a day to get home by our return date is finally beginning to take its toll.  Why else would it be so irritating when I couldn’t get a box to fit where I wanted it to behind the front seat?

We reached Edmond, Oklahoma, and checked  into a hotel at 9 p.m., after finally deciding we weren’t going to push into Atlanta (almost 1,000 miles) tomorrow.  Whew!  We can definitely tell we’re not 30 years old anymore.

On Saturday, we left Edmond, Oklahoma, just north of Oklahoma City at 8 a.m. in the rain, which continued with us much of the morning.  Exhausted, we drove the 500 miles to Memphis and found a hotel for the night.  For the first time on this trip, we had dinner at a restaurant—Bennigan’s.  It was less than a success.  When I ordered a gardenburger (meaning meatless), the waiter brought me a big beefy burger with lettuce and tomato. 

Racing through from state to state

Only 400 miles to go, we sped east on Sunday, arriving home to relieve the pet sitter and see our cats again after two weeks away.  Though they still remembered who we were, they were not impressed with tales of our adventures and made it clear they thought we had stayed away a bit too long.  And then it was time to get some laundry done.