July 9 - Home Again, Home Again, Jiggedy Jig!

 We slept until 8 am this morning - I am sure that we got good sleep because we were back in our home state! We packed up quickly, gave the kitties their food and got on the road. We were Knightdale bound! I tried to snap some pics on our way down to Old Fort, but it was hazy and the sun was in the wrong position to get us good photos. 

We stopped in Hickory to charge briefly, just enough to get us home. Leon was able to get Bojangles for his breakfast - he said it was really good (country ham biscuits are hard to beat, especially when you haven't had one in months). We continued on I-40 all the way to Raleigh and ran into some of the heaviest traffic on our way through Chapel Hill and RTP (and it wasn't even rush hour). We stopped for lunch at Cava in Chapel Hill and it was as good as we remembered.

We stopped at the grocery store on the way to our house - it was Birch's birthday so I made his requested dinner and cake: chicken piccata and roasted broccoli, dark chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream icing. I was looking forward to getting back in the kitchen after so long!

We arrived home, where we were greeted by Birch and our cat, Zlatan. Both were happy to see us. 

The final drive of our trip - all that stuff behind us had to be unloaded and put away. That is always the bad part of the trip!

Driving back into our neighborhood

Our "we're so happy to be home" picture to match our "we're so excited to embark on this adventure" picture from 4 months ago.

Leon and Birch worked on unloading the car while I worked to get the kitchen ready/groceries put away so I could start cooking. Riley and his wife Jensen, as well as my parents, came over to share in the birthday dinner for Birch. I was a little concerned that I may have lost a step since it had been so long since I cooked, but everyone was happy with the meal. The cake was one of the best ones I have ever made!

Birch blowing out his candle

As you can tell, it was good to be home.

Birch's birthday cake

We had a great time catching up with everyone, but I was tired after traveling and cooking. It was great to be back in our bed and we slept very soundly that night!

July 8 - Back to NC

We were up a bit early this morning and on our way by 7:40 after typical hotel breakfast. Our goal was to make it to Asheville by 8:00 and finish the trip home tomorrow.

We crossed into Indiana at our first exit and charged once in the morning before stopping for lunch in Georgetown, KY. On the way there we crossed into Ohio, back into Indiana, then into KY. We had pretty good sushi and hibachi for lunch while we charged. 

We continued south into Tennessee and charged and had dinner at Buc-ees in Sevierville, TN. The brisket sandwiches were pretty good and the banana pudding was even better. Again, we continued east past the construction zone near the TN - NC border. We were worried this would be a big back-up, but traffic flowed through the whole area, albeit a bit slowly. 

We arrived in Asheville right at 7:00 and are so thankful our friend Leah let us crash at her house while she was in Raleigh. We had a relaxing evening watching SNL and working on the blog.

July 7 - Crossing the Midwest

We were up with the alarm at 7:15 this morning and heading east by 8:00 AM. We charged in Early, IA but got just 50 kw and many flies around. We stopped again in a shorter interval than usual because the previous charge had been so slow. We found a Ford dealer with fast chargers and topped up. After that we got to Cedar Rapids for Leon to have a planned lunch with old friend Jason Kline while I got snacks for the road and lunch. It was great to catch up with Jason who Leon hadn't seen since 2013. 

We were in farm country for sure! Lots of corn around, which this large machine (harvester, I think) is used to tend.

We crossed the Mississippi River!

When crossed the river, we were in Illinois.

Five Guys, delicious as always

A sunset setting over the trucks!

After the full charge we continued east and south towards our next stop in Champaign, IL for dinner and a final charge. We charged at a Ford dealer again and walked to dinner at Five Guys. It was good as usual but their service wasn't the best. 

We continued east to our Baymont hotel in Danville, IL, arriving around 8:00. This gave us a few hours to relax in the room before bedtime. 

Iowa lived up to it's stereotype of corn. Lots of corn. Wildlife sightings were limited to a few hawks and deer. Tomorrow we'll travel to Asheville to stay for the evening before heading home.

July 6 - The Badlands and Eastward, ho!

We woke up late this morning. I guess we were enjoying the hotel bed and we needed the extra sleep. We had mediocre hotel breakfast and headed east at 8:40. It was cool seeing the Crazy Horse monument on the way to Badlands NP, where we arrived at 10:00. 

Crazy Horse Monument still under construction

The views were great even before we got to the Badlands

We entered through the Sage Creek Rd entrance and followed that to the Scenic Road. We got to see a few bison and many colonies of prairie dogs on the Scenic Road. We also enjoyed seeing a burrowing owl trying to coax its young away from the nest. It was our first time seeing the burrowing owls and they were very cute!

The real highlight in Badlands were the landscapes. A number of areas reminded us of Bryce Canyon and Grand Staircase - Escalante. The landscape was quite varied as well, with maze-like canyons and rolling hills. We thoroughly enjoyed this drive, one of the favorites of the trip.

Rolling hills at the start of the drive

King of all he surveys!

Mama burrowing owl

Three new burrowing owls, reluctant to leave the nest.

Here is the Mama on the right, trying to coax the 3 babies out of the nest- they were having none of it!

We had a stop at the Visitor's Center where we saw the exhibits and watched a film. From there we did a short hike on the Cliff Shelf trail before heading out of the park a little after 1:00.

We hoped to eat lunch soon on I-90 but the choices were few and poor. We ended up a train diner which was surprisingly good! We continued down the road with a charge at the DQ and then continued on to Sioux City, Iowa where we had dinner at a decent Mongolian place while we charged. Hotel was the New Victorian Inn, our best hotel value of the entire trip. Highly recommended if you're in Sioux City.

We saw these strange figures from the road - they were part of a putt putt golf course.