Before leaving Cache Valley, we made one more stop at the Pepperidge Farm outlet store in Richmond, UT. If you are ever in the area, and you like things like goldfish crackers, Milano cookies, etc., then treat yourself right, drop in and pick up a snack or two. But, there are no guarantees about what will be on the shelves day to day. So, it's kind of a treasure hunt. And the prices are great! The main reason I stopped in was to pick up some of their chocolate chip cookies - I got some the previous Friday - but when I got there, that shelf was bare! :-(. Oh well. I consoled myself with some chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies instead, and some X-treme Cheddar goldfish crackers.
A few miles later, we crossed that last state border for the tour...and I knew I was on the glide path that leads home. Ah, home, what a great word! HOME.
Once over the border, it's not long before you reach Preston, ID, hometown of that great American Napoleon Dynamite!
If you are interested, there are websites you can visit that will help you find sites that appeared in the movie: Napoleon's house, Pedro's House, the Cuttin' Corral, Pop n Pins bowling alley, the site of Rex Kwando's dojo,, etc. This movie is now a piece of Americana, and the film makers totally nailed life in a small Idaho town - my wife should know, she graduated from a small Idaho HS herself (not Preston's though).
I wanted to stop and grab a bite to eat at Big J's in Preston, but, alas, I went through town before it opened. I'll be back!
Anyway, there was one more scheduled stop that I want to tell you about before I wrap up the last driving day.
Have you ever heard of Red Rock Pass? It's a cool place, geologically speaking, between Preston, ID, and I-15. It's worth a stop because something both amazing and catastrophic happened there sometime around 11,000 years ago. This is where ancient Lake Bonneville flooded out.
OK, so what's the big deal about Red Rock Pass? Well, I'll tell you. The image above shows the ancient, massive Lake Bonneville during the last ice age, and Red Rock Pass is where the lake finally spilled over and flooded out. Geologists estimate that once the flood was going, it probably reached a peak discharge flow rate of 1,000,000 cubic METERS of water per SECOND!!! That flowing water contributed to gouging out the Snake River Canyon and created other cool features.
I climbed to the top of the small hill shown in the photo above and took a photo looking towards the south - where the lake used to be (upper image below) and to the south (lower image below) where the flood waters went.
Lake Bonneville has since dwindled down to the present day Great Salt Lake.
OK, once we were back on the road, it was a straight shot to IF where the Dragons demanded that we stop at prominent Idaho Falls locations, including Costco and Winco...they were hungry :-D.
I pulled into Rexburg in the mid-afternoon on the scariest day of the year - Halloween. I celebrated by meeting up with my daughter Emily and her husband Nathan for diner at Applebee's to put the final touches on the tour.
Here are a few final stats about the trip:
- Trip length: 26 days
- Trip distance = 4537 miles (38% on interstates and 62% on other highways and roadways)
- Number of National Parks, Monuments and Sites visited = 12 (Teton NP, Devil's Tower NM, Badlands, Minuteman NHS, Carlsbad Caverns NP, Guadalupe Mtns NP, White Sands NP, Petrified Forest NP, Bears Ears NM, Natural Bridges NM, Arches NP, Canyonlands NP)
- States visited: 10 (Idaho, Wyoming, S Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah)
- Nights in motels: 8
- Family members visited: Immediate family 12 of 13, plus my mother, and my sister and her family
- Movies purchased at thrift and used book stores: 13
Lastly, once I got rolling, I started thinking about what mementos I might want to collect to commemorate the trip, and this is what I decided on: Postcards of National Parks and Monuments, etc.
Man, I LOVE my senior lifetime national parks pass! It paid for itself probably 2-3x over on this trip alone.
And so, the Mud Dragons/I am home again.
This was a wonderful, yet bittersweet trip. Time and again when I went someplace or saw something I thought to myself, "This is beautiful/amazing/inspiring/quirky and Kat would LOVE this!"
I enjoy a good adventure, but few things compare with the peace, stability, and comfort of home.
Thanks for joining me on this journey. Now it's time to start my real adventure, discovering my new reality and crafting a new life.
Cheers!
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