We are home in Eau Claire, Wisconsin!

We made it home safe and sound.  I wanted to leave you with a post of a summary of our trip.  First, here is a picture of Grandpa Wes driving the last 138 miles.

• We drove 3000 miles in 9 days.
• We went through 261 gallons of Diesel fuel.
• Our fuel efficiency was roughly 18.7 miles per gallon.
• We watched 12 movies in the truck.
• We drove through the following states:  Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and we were a stone's throw from Michigan (Calvin wanted to go there, just to say we drove through, but that didn't happen).
• We saw the following state's license plates during our trip (39 states accounted for):  Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Indiana, Iowa, Oregon, Nevada, Michigan, Texas, Illinois, Florida, Ohio, Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia, South Dakota, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, North Carolina, Maryland, California, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Utah, Washington, Idaho, Arizona, and Montana.  We also saw a few from Canada:  Alberta, Ontario and Manitoba.
• The kids know every word to the song California Girls by Katie Perry.
• Don't expect to drive 12 hours in the car and have the kids go right to bed.  Note to self, no kids are allowed to sleep in the car.
• When you go the wrong way on a toll road, you have to pay to get off and pay to get back on again.  This results in a 10 mile detour.
• Our Ford Excursion is magnetically attracted to idiots at the toll booths that ask all sorts of questions, and slow down the toll booth process.
• After we got back from Washinton DC, we found out that the pollution level was at a warning level due to the heat.  Good thing we didn't know that while we were there.
• We need a sign on the back of our truck stating "Senior On-Board" when Grandpa was driving because he needs both lanes on the highway when driving (good thing we limited his driving to about 200 miles total).
• We made a rule that everyone is allowed to request a taxi, at anytime, no questions asked, in a desperate situation (we only used this once on our trek from the US Capitol to the Washington Monument).
• It is very beautiful in West Virginia and Virginia.  Everyone should take the time to go out there and visit sometime.  David really enjoyed having visitors and said we can go back there anytime.  Thanks for the hospitality David and Xiang!

I will post a couple of pictures of our newly tiled/remodeled bathroom & laundry room when we finally get home to Minnesota.