I sit here in an Indianapolis KOA feeling slightly conflicted. On one hand, we are going to be home tomorrow. Home means my own comfortable bed, a whole floor away from my children. Home also means shower with plenty of water pressure and hot water. And home means spreading out and having room to move around in my house. On the flip side, home means no more glorious cliffs to gaze upon. No more hikes through emerald waters. Home means cable TV, so I’ll have to hear complaints when I turn it off and suggest a game of Spoons or Farkel.

There lies my conflict. By nature I’m a homebody. I’m not someone you will find out and about for no reason. If I’m not working and the kids are at school I’m most likely sitting at home reading, watching tv or catching up on housework. But summer vacation brings out the adventurer in me. I want to get outside and hike or bike and explore. I want to see things I’ve never seen before and push myself out of my comfort zone. But the comfort zone is calling. This time tomorrow I’ll be smack dab in the middle of it. I can’t wait. I’m so tired of adventure. Yet, I know I’ll miss it.

To catch you up on the last few days of our vacation, I have to go back to Sunday. We got up early and left our campground just outside of Mesa Verde. We decided to make that our last Junior Ranger stop of this trip. I’m sure Mesa Verde is a perfectly lovely place, but we started off on the wrong foot. For starters, nobody told us you can’t tow a vehicle in there. So we had to disconnect the car from the RV and drive the car up to the top of the mountain. It makes sense, the roads are very windy and narrow, but it was raining and cold. So already I’m slightly miffed. We cram ourselves into the car and drive up to the Visitors Center. Keep in mind; we have been to seven other National Parks on this trip, so we consider ourselves experts on how things should be run. Mesa Verde does it all wrong. They want you to stand outside in the cold and rain and wait to talk to a ranger about the various options at the park. I guess that’s also where they sell you the passes for the tours too. Way too complicated. We weren’t doing any of the tours. Did I mention it was raining and cold? Did I also mention the tours were all like three hours plus. I’d have to be insane to take three kids on a three hour tour. We all know what happened to Gilligan when he did it. We looked at the brochure they gave us at the gate and knew exactly what we wanted to do; we didn’t need to stand in line to discuss it with anyone. It’s not rocket science. I don’t know why they had to make it so complicated. Being a rebel, I walked in the door on the other side. It didn’t say “Do Not Enter” and nobody tried to stop us, so I kept on going right up to the desk. There was a lovely volunteer standing there, not talking to anyone, so we got our Jr. Ranger booklets and we were on our way, it took all of about 30 seconds.

We drove up to Spruce Tree House and the museum, and walked the path down to the cliff dwelling. It was very cool. It’s amazing to think that people used to live on the underside of cliffs like that. We walked around, got the information we needed to complete the badges and started walking back up the mountain when the skies decided to really open up on us. It was pouring. We finally made it back to the museum, found a helpful Park Ranger, turned in our sopping wet books and the boys got their badges. Back, back, back down the mountain we went to reunite the car with the RV. In the rain Glenn re-connected them while the boys and I took a potty break. Wouldn’t you know it, no paper towels in the ladies room. Grrrr. I had gotten over the “no tow vehicles” and line waiting debacle, but this threw me back into a bad mood. So, needless to say, Mesa Verde is my least favorite National Park right now. Four Corners still ranks number one on the list of biggest waste of time.

Back on the road everything was running smoothly until Glenn got sick. We had to pull over and he rested for about 45 minutes until he felt well enough to move on. By now it was raining again and I recommended we find hotel to stop in for the night. The last thing Glenn needed to do was hook up the RV in the rain. So we stopped at a Holiday Inn Express in La Junta, Colorado for the night. The kids were thrilled to have cable again. It seems we have managed to find every campground between Maryland and Arizona without cable. I was thrilled to have a real bed to sleep in, as was Glenn. By the time we checked into the hotel he was feeling better, but still not great. By the next morning he felt well enough to continue the drive home. It’s a good thing; I didn’t want to have to drive. I’m terribly intimidated by the thought of commanding the big rig.

Our last sight-seeing destination on our trip was Dodge City, Kansas. There’s not much to say about Dodge City. It was okay, but pricy. I preferred Tombstone. We got there late in the day, so we weren’t able to go on any of the tours or anything like that, so that has colored my opinion as well. We may give it another try when we have more time. The original plan was to get there earlier, but since Glenn got sick we ended up stopping early and short of our intended destination the night before. So that, coupled with the free breakfast at the hotel really messed up our time-line. If you have plans to go to Dodge City, please don’t change them based on my experience. We just didn’t get to do much at all. We did eat at a restaurant that served buffalo. Glenn and I had the buffalo sandwiches, of course, but I was pleasantly surprised that my oldest, Robert, opted to have it as well. My kids aren’t known for their culinary experimentation. It was okay. I’ve had better. They didn’t have buffalo burgers, which I think we would have liked better; it was “pulled buffalo”.

Once we “got the heck out of Dodge” we decided to try to make up some of our lost time with a late drive. We stopped for the night at around 1 am in a Walmart parking lot somewhere in Missouri. Glenn was up driving early this morning, and by the time I rolled out of bed we were past St. Louis and almost to Effingham, Illinois. We treated ourselves to breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Mmmmm… I love me some Cracker Barrel.

So that leads us here, a KOA just past Indianapolis. We’ve had our pool time, we roasted s’mores, and we sat out by the fire and talked with the people in the campsite next to us. There’s really nothing left to do but call it a night and start the drive home tomorrow. This truly was a magnificent vacation. I was finally able to fulfill my lifelong dream of going to the Grand Canyon, I’ve hiked the most beautiful trails in America, and I’ve gotten quality time with my husband and children. It was everything I could have hoped for and more. It was so great that we are planning on taking a ten day jaunt into New England and possibly Nova Scotia in a couple of weeks. Where will the road lead us? Who knows, but as long as I’ve got my family with me, who cares?