Today was the final leg of our 12-day trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and back by way of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and the mountains of West Virginia. We had 276 miles to travel and figured it would take us 5.5 hours as our planned route was mostly US highways with some Interstate highway legs and a little bit of surface roads. We planned to leave around 10 AM and arrive home between 3:30 and 4:00 PM. We actually left at 11:19 AM and arrived home at 5:00 PM. Although we were approaching Ann Arbor from the south around 4:15 PM and encountered increasingly heavy traffic, we slowed down to the posted truck speed of 60 MPH and sailed right around.
The drive from Chillicothe, OH to Columbus, OH on US-23 was very pleasant. The highway was 4-lane divided most of the way, and often limited access. The terrain was still gently rolling and was very pretty with fall colors under nice sunlight. Lunch hour traffic around the outskirts of Columbus on I-270 was moderate but not congested, even in the construction zones. We exited I-270 at the northwest corner of the Columbus area onto US-33 headed northwest. Again, an excellent multi-lane divided US highway that rolls through some lovely countryside and passes just next to the highest point in Ohio.
We stayed on US-33 until it intersected I-75N at Wapakoneta, OH. From there it was 90 miles to Toledo, OH but we exited before reaching Toledo, heading west on I-475/US-23 which turned north towards Sylvania, effectively bypassing Toledo. Crossing the border into Michigan it always feels like we are almost home, but we are not. The shortest distance to a border from our house is about 60 miles, which gets us to the bridge or tunnel from Detroit to Windsor, Canada. But the shortest route to a bordering state is US-23 to Ohio which is straight north/south shot to our community. Even so, it was 70 miles and another 80 minutes of driving, or about 25% of our trip today.
While it is always nice to return home, it is often the worst part of the trip in terms of roads. Many of Michigan’s roads are not in the best shape, and US-23 from Ohio to Ann Arbor is one of those roads. It’s not only annoying (our tax dollars not at work), it’s embarrassing.
We pulled into the driveway around 5:00 PM, plugged in the electrical shoreline and unloaded much of our stuff. I got a load of laundry started while Linda put groceries away. We still had some daylight, so we grabbed our box of yellow plastic stakes and a 100 foot tape measure and marked the approximate location of the proposed bus barn and driveway. While Linda fixed dinner (black beans and rice from leftovers) I called Phil at Precision Grading to let him know he could stop by at his convenience to measure the layout for estimating purposes.
On balance it was a good 12-day outing. We learned quite a bit about using our digital SLR camera in conjunction with powerful but free image editing software. We were in scenic parts of the country at an ideal time of year for photography. We got to do some sight-seeing, hiking, and captured some nice photographic images. We got to spend time with new friends and with family. And the coach ran well.