Great Lakes Grooving: Day 21 Travel Home and Thoughts

[CrispyA]

Saturday 27 July

After a good night's sleep, we were up and about fairly early and again had breakfast made for us, which was much appreciated. All our cases were packed and it didn't take too long to get the car loaded up. A good thing about road trips is that after one or two stops, you become experts in getting all your stuff in the car in no time at all!

We said our goodbyes and all of us were pretty emotional. We had really enjoyed our stay with Paul's family and it was a wrench to leave. Before the trip, there had been a few nerves about staying so long with family, especially as we don't see them very often, but they made us so welcome and we felt very much at home very quickly.

We usually set the satnav to avoid toll roads but as we wanted to avoid the traffic on the way to Chicago O'Hare, we took the toll roads. The tolls took cash and weren't very expensive and it did make a difference to the journey time.

We got checked in for our Delta flight to Atlanta and then explored the airport. I reminded everyone that we were unlikely to get more than a snack on this flight and that we didn't have a huge amount of time to get food at Atlanta and that they would be likely to get hungry on the way.

They did realise that getting some food was going to be a good idea and we found somewhere that sold deep dish pizzas and hotdogs and so had our last Chicago dog of the holiday.

Then it was time to board the plane for the flight to Atlanta. We then had a short time at Atlanta before boarding our flight to Manchester. The plane was only about half full which was unusual for the time of year that we usually go - I guess it was too early in the school holidays for many people to be coming home from the US. We weren't quick enough to grab a row of seats to ourselves for the flight home - people moved like lightning once the seatbelt sign was off - but it was still nice to have far fewer people on the plane and to feel like there was room to move around. As usual, nobody slept very much and we were pretty tired when we landed at Manchester.

We had to power walk and occasionally run to get our train from Manchester Airport but it did mean that we were home by about 10.30 and could collect the cats before collapsing into bed for a power nap to keep us going to bedtime.

We had a brilliant trip and really enjoyed spending time with family as well as exploring Wisconsin and Michigan. We loved our AirBnB experiences as well as all the outdoorsy stuff we were able to to and the Great Lakes is a lovely part of the world. To be honest, it's never been a part of the USA that was high on my list but it actually turned out to be a great place for a road trip and I'm so glad that we went.

We are having a year off from America next year. We love our road trips but they are expensive and with the exchange rate and the general cost of living, we are going to have a cheaper holiday and stay closer to home. Also, I never want it to become "normal" and we think a year or two off will help keep that special feeling.

So we are going to Italy in 2020. It won't be "cheap" - travelling in school holidays never is - but it will be cheap-er and I have to say, the thought of shorter flights and no jet-lag is enticing. We have an even shorter window of time to go away - we can't go before the end of the school term in Year 12 and we need to be back before the University resit period, just in case, so that gives us three weeks to play with.

Thanks for reading and I hope you've enjoyed it. I love reading trip reports so I hope this one has been both useful and entertaining!

[Twiga6]

I love your trip reports, they’re definitely never boring!
Looking forward to your Italian adventure

[Cutiepie]

Another great trip & report. I have really enjoyed reading along thanks for sharing.

[Melbatb]

Thanks for a great report!

Where in Italy are you thinking of?

[katiebaz]

Great trip report and I have really enjoyed reading along. It was really interesting to read about a lesser known part of the states too.

Enjoy Italy and look forward to reading about that too

[WileyCoyote]

Glad travel home day went smoothly. Such a fabulous trip.
Will look forward to Italy !
Ciao Bella x