The next morning, we were going home.  But not quite yet.  While it is true that we really wanted to go home, we still had one more thing to do before getting there.

We were two days away from Mary's sixth birthday; and, since we were on the Mogollon Rim, we decided to find a beautiful place to take her birthday pictures.  This was a tradition that we had started two years earlier, when we took Mary's fourth birthday pictures - and then her fifth birthday pictures - near Flagstaff.  We were in luck, too, because Omi had just bought her a brand new dress that was perfect for the pictures - perfect, because it was pink, Mary's favorite color.

Our first stop was Bear Canyon Lake, which is located near the Canyon Point Campground off of SR 260.  We posed Mary near the lake and started snapping pictures.  We got a couple of nice pictures, but the lighting wasn't very good there that morning.

Next, we stopped at one of the overlooks off of FR 300.  The lighting there was perfect - and the scenery, of course, was incredible - so we knew that we were going to be able to get some excellent shots of Mary.  Of course, by that time, she was bored of the photo shoot, which prompted John to go into full goofball mode.  He danced around behind me, making funny faces and telling really bad jokes.  It worked beautifully, and Mary was soon laughing hysterically. 

Once the pictures were done, we piled back into the 4Runner and continued on our way home.  Our route took us west on SR 260, to Payson, where we connected with SR 87 - the Beeline Highway.  The Beeline took us south into Phoenix, by way of Fountain Hills and Scottsdale.

The Valley was truly a sight for sore eyes.  Having been on the road for eleven days, we were grateful to be home again.  No more fleabag motels.  No more dinners out.  No more ice chest sandwiches.  No more sticky humidity.  No more fourteen-to-sixteen hour days behind the wheel. 

We were home!

As our cross-country road trip came to a close, I thought about the adventure that we had had.  It was indeed a fun way of seeing the country, visiting states that I had never seen before.  We contemplated doing other road trips like it - perhaps to visit the Midwest or New England.

But for now - since we don't always have that kind of time off - I think we'll just fly...
 

Return to South Carolina or Bust.

Return to Naked in the Woods.