This is it; the last day of our trip and the final leg home, back to West Hartford, CT.  It turns out that this was our longest drive of our entire trip: 12 hours with stops covering 670 miles.  We have made this trip to and from Powell, so we knew what to expect.

It has been an amazing 29 days.  We returned home with many experiences and life-long memories.  During our trip we managed to drive a total of 8,593 miles in 21 states.  I am truly thankful for the opportunity to make this trip and feel blessed that we were able to have four weeks of quality time and experiences together.  We completed the trip with all of us still talking.  I was worried we would get three weeks into the trip and then have someone, or all of us, feel ready to go home.  That was not the case.  The girls did not seem to tire of the trip, only some of our requests to go hiking.

We had only two stops where we spent more than one night in the same place.  I think that kept the trip interesting.  To me our trip felt a little like eating at a buffet.  We were able to see and experience a little bit of a lot of different things and places.  Hopefully we will be able to return and spend more time at some of the places we visited.

To all of our family and friends who we were able to visit and stay with during our trip: thank you for your hospitality.  It was wonderful to see you and spend time with you.

If you are considering a trip like this we would highly recommend it.  All four of us in the Hammond family, Greg, Karen, Kelsey and Lindsey, all give it a big thumb up!

Today was another day in Powell, OH.  It was a little cloudy so we decided to gather the troops and go bowling.  We enjoyed some intergenerational bowling with all three generations participating.  Fun was had by all.

The sun came out and the temperature started to climb, so we headed out with Kelsey and Lindsey’s cousins to Zoombezi Bay, a waterpark attached to the Columbus Zoo.  The park has some really neat water slides, lazy rivers and a wave pool.  Kelsey and Lindsey enjoyed the time with their cousins while I enjoyed being the Uncle going on the slides with them to add some weight and extra speed.  Late in the afternoon Karen and my sister Heidi found the “adults only” lazy river tucked in the back.  We will have to remember that for next time.

It was wonderful to spend some time with my sister Heidi.  Can you see the family resemblance in our picture?  That evening Lindsey celebrated her birthday for the second time with the Ohio family members.

Today we traveled from Champaign, IL to Powell, OH (355 miles).  On our way we spent a couple of hours at Miami University in Oxford, OH [my alma mater].  In planning the trip I realized I have not been back to campus since my sister graduated in 1992.  My how things have changed in twenty years!  We took a brief driving tour, parked at the Shriver student center to look in the bookstore and then walked across campus, up slant walk to go uptown for lunch.  While we were in the bookstore we showed Kelsey some of the textbooks and their prices; that was a little bit of sticker shock for all of us.

Our final destination for the day was my parent’s home in Powell, OH.  My sister and my three nephews also live in Powell.  We enjoyed a nice home-cooked meal for dinner and look forward to staying in the same place for the next few nights.