Day 21: Home Sweet Home!

One thing that we had found that we felt was worth seeing was the Devonian Fossil Gorge near Iowa City. Despite wanting to get home, we decided to stop and take a look. It was really interesting, especially for Alex, who has studied fossils for Science Olympiad.

It was a nice short break to stretch our legs and I also made some quick hummus (or peanut butter) and pita sandwiches for lunch. We did not want to stop again, so we just ate a lot of snacks along the way home.
The kids have eaten so much junk food this trip. We gave them each their own spending money, and so at most every rest stop they have bought candy or chips or something else unhealthy! I did limit them to only one pop a day, otherwise I think they would have wanted to drink nothing but pop, too. I guess we are all inclined to eat more poorly while on a trip. We did prepare a lot of our own meals and also tried to eat fresh fruit, veggies, dried fruit and nuts and seeds while on the road. It wasn't all bad.
We did stop for gas at a truck stop in Iowa, which turned out to be an attraction in and of itself. It claims to be the world's biggest truck stop, and actually felt a little bit like a mall.

 There were so many different stores in it, not to mention an upper level, where there was a barber, a chiropractor, a dentist, and a theater. They even had a souvenir penny crusher for Ben to press one last penny! He wound up with 11 total crushed souvenir pennies!
After stopping at Leroy and Elaine's house to help empty the freezer and fridge, unload some of their things from the van and load up some of our things in the van, we got home around 9 pm.
Alex drove us from grandma and grandpa's house home, just as he had driven the first stretch of the trip to their house 3 weeks ago!
Thanks to my mom and my friend Tanya, Princess and the fish tank were well taken care of. Thanks to our neighbor boy, Jett, the lawn was recently mowed. It was good to be home!