Since our flight wasn't until Sunday morning, we didn't have to rush to get back to Denver. There was barely any traffic in Wyoming. We stopped in Laramie to get gas and a couple of souvenirs. Once we were in Colorado, we had a short delay. Traffic was at standing still because there was an accident.

We were parked next to this cow field for about 20 minutes. At least it was a beautiful day and we could see the snow covered mountains in the distance.

When we got to Denver, we had dinner at the Olive Garden. Afterward, we sat in the car and used a few websites to look for a hotel near the airport. I thought we might get a deal using Hotwire, but everything was expensive. We picked the The Fairfield Inn & Suites on Tower Road.

While I was checking in, Matt got everything out of the car. I gave him the room key and went to return the car. There was a gas station near the hotel so I stopped to top off and to clean out the car. When I was gathering the trash, I found Matt's video camera under the passenger seat. I'm so glad I found it!

I was worried about the return car experience, but I lucked out. Two shuttles arrived shortly after me. I was there less than 15 minutes. When we picked up the car, it had 37,174 miles on it. The check out mileage was 38,733. We'd driven 1,559 miles over the last 4 days.

It was 7 PM when I boarded the Fox shuttle to go back to the airport. I wasn't sure where to go and I missed the first shuttle to the hotel. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long for the next one to arrive. On the way back to the hotel, I got a text message from Matt telling me that we were in a different room. Apparently, the A/C wasn't working in our first room so they gave us a new one.

We celebrated the end of our adventure with a bottle of champagne. It worked. Everything fell into place - 50 states before 50 and a hot air balloon jump for a spectacular finish. The dream became a reality.

Our trip home was smooth sailing. It was a relief to finally be done. Of course, now I have to figure what's next for us. Rock climbing? Marathon running? Scuba diving? Hard to say, but for now I plan to enjoy a few months of being a homebody!