Road Trip XI …by the numbers: 8 weeks. 10,000 miles (best guess). 26 states. 62 far-and-dear friends and family members. 14 national parks/monuments. 20 state parks. 6 post-season Tarheel men’s basketball games (5 victories + 1 almost!)

…and by the category:

Best hike: Custer State Park, South Dakota, Needles region

Best bike ride: Colorado National Monument rim road 

(Honorable mention: Bizz Johnson trail in Susanville, CA …but it doesn’t win because it gave The Mate a flat tire)

Best waterfall: Sioux Falls…even though conflicted feelings arose when I read about its blasted, quarried history

Best trees: California redwoods

Best wildflowers: Rogue River National Recreation Trail, near Merlin, Oregon

Best wildlife: tie between javelinas in Arizona…

…and [not pictured] wild burros spotted in Utah off I-70 (a first for us)

Best sunset: outside our Virginia motel on our loversary

Best restaurant meal: sushi in Chapel Hill with my parents

Best home-cooked dinner: our friend Ben’s roast lamb with chimichurri 

Best gift from our hosts: kumquats/avocados/oranges from our Hollywood cousins’ trees

Biggest detour: dropping south all the way to Las Vegas in order to avoid dangerous, truck-toppling winds

Best silver lining: getting to hike & clamber in Red Rocks National Preservation Area (or whatever it’s called) just outside of Vegas, just before the winds hit

additional bonus to silver lining: the desert in bloom!

Longest day’s drive: Moab to Las Vegas (460 miles)

Scariest drive: crossing the Cascades on snowy lil’ Rt. 89 past Mt. Lassen in California

And now for a couple of less-traditional categories.

Best basketball game: UNC vs. Duke in the national semifinal (81-77)

Best dog: Ramses in Olympia

And finally, the Grand Travel Blog Award for Best New Discovery goes to…Oregon’s Rogue River Trail!

We’re already talking about how to get back there.

…but for now, oh my goodness–it’s good to be home, safe and sound and grateful as all get-out for this long, LONG getting-out. And now, as Wing’s World morphs back into its non-travel mode…thanks for traveling with me anyway!