The jig is up. I’m headed home from vacation today.

It has been a fantastic week of fun with my western adventure pal Johnna. This “Thelma and Louise” style road trip started last Sunday night when she retrieved me from the Denver airport. We set out on a big loop to Grand Junction, down to the Four Corners region and then back up to Denver via Colorado Springs.

Along the way, we hiked, did a lot of sightseeing, made some new friends and stayed in some truly terrible hotels. We stood in four states at once down at Four Corners and had a delicious veggie burger in a restaurant in an airplane.

I even got to meet my blogging pal Eilene. If you don’t read her blog, you really should. She has exceptional research skills and is a delightful storyteller who tells stories you won’t find anywhere else. Click here to visit her blog.

I experienced some culture shock in New Mexico and Arizona – a region that couldn’t be any more different than my southern Ohio home. There were some unusual wildlife encounters and a few truly strange but memorable days.

The image above comes from somewhere east of Durango as we began making our way north and back to the Colorado Springs area.

I am exhausted but happy and am pretty sure this is the best possible birthday gift I could give myself. As I write this, it is 3:30 a.m. and I just checked into an airport hotel. Weather wreaked havoc across the country, causing delays and making for an exceptionally long day for me but my pilot evidently had a lead foot because he got us to Columbus in record time.

For that, I am grateful.

I have a plethora of stories to tell you and will start sharing them soon. Meanwhile, I will sleep.