We're back in Ohio after our Great American Roadtrip.  The trip covered 10 days, over 3000 miles (almost 5000 kilometers), and 8 states.

Truly it was a great experience.  I fell in love again with my native land.  Sure, Midwest America can be queer and quirky in its own ways (South Dakota's Wall Drug and the "Iowa-80" World's Largest Truckstop are two more cases in point) -- but golly, can it be beautiful.  With our own eyes, we saw America the Beautiful:  its spacious skies, its amber waves of grain, its fruited plains (I would have included the "purple mountain majesties," but I don't really know if the Dakota Badlands and Black Hills would really qualify as such)... They are images that I will likely remember forever.  But even more than the scenery, I was charmed by the American people that we got to meet along the way.  Friends, family, and strangers... whomever.  The rest of the world may say what it likes about America's materialism and habits toward excess -- but I'll tell you:  I don't know of any people more generous or hospitible than Midwestern Americans.  We had a wonderful time.

Still, we're glad to be back.  Dragging ourselves up onto the front porch yesterday evening, the sensation was much like the feeling at the end of a day at the amusement park:  tired, hot, sticky, mildly nauseous, and whooped... But also very satisfied, exhilerated, and glad for the experience.

*** As you can see from the picture above, we picked up some souvenirs along the way in the form of state magnets... though, unfortunately, we were not able to pick up an Iowa magnet (at least not to the same scale as the rest of the magnets).  We had the opportunity at other points along the way (earlier in the trip) to get an Iowa magnet, but we had a self-imposed rule that we could not purchase the magnet until we had actually been to the state.  It's the little things like that which keep the road trip interesting (particularly with the kids).