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Trip miles 8871
Daily miles 808
Junior Nomad and I completed the final leg of our trip on Friday, July 11. It was an epic 800 mile run from Chicago through Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and finally into New York City. O' Nomad had flown out of Chicago the before.
We left Chicago about 8am and after a few wrong turns finally made it onto I-80 which goes directly into the George Washington Bridge. Consequently we didn't need the car's nav system for anything other than to periodically compute our estimated time of arrival.
I don't have that many pictures from this leg of the trip because a) there truly wasn't that much to see en route, and b) Junior Nomad and I were too busy enjoying the now near-continuous cell coverage by surfing the net on my laptop in full digital nomad style to take pictures of featureless landscape. Nonetheless there were a few items of note.
First was the sheer industrialness of Indiana.
None of the pictures truly capture this, but the above one is the best. In parts of the state there just seemed to be nothing but power pylons with the odd power plant in the distance.
Easily the most interesting thing we saw was a stunt plane (probably an Extra 500 or similar) doing aerobatics no more than 1000 feet off the deck. None of the pictures really captures the aggressiveness of the maneuvers, but this is the closest.
We then entered Ohio.
The main item of note in Ohio was a very large GM plant. It was good to see that domestic production was still occurring.
I was very happy to enter Pennsylvania. We were getting closer!
I wonder what had been blocked out...
Knowing that we were finally in a state that borders on New York was inexplicably soothing to me. This effect persisted even after I saw this sign.
The rest of the run was uneventful. Pennsylvania is a really long state, which I hadn't appreciated prior to the trip. Virtually all of the 400 miles we drove were picturesque, but the rolling hills did not lend themselves to being photographed and then it started to get dark.
I have a really blurry picture of the Welcome to New Jersey sign, but it's more or less illegible so I'm not posting it. Suffice to say Junior and I were thrilled that we were almost home!
We parked the car in my parking space about 9:45 PM New York time. I was exhausted and truly felt a sense of accomplishment. I remember pumping my fist in the air with joy before walking to the home that I had been away from for the last month. I felt like Odysseus finally returning when I greeted Mrs. Nomad.
A big thank you to all of the readers of this blog. Your interest in and comments about it motivated me to try to capture as much of the essence of the trip as possible. I will undoubtedly appreciate this record of the trip even more in the coming years and it would not be nearly as detailed as it is without your input.
I plan to have one last post over the next couple of weeks which summarizes the key themes and takeways of the trip. After that I plan to post sporadically about travel, especially when I go somewhere interesting.
Please do check in periodically, and again, thank you again for all of your support!
As I alluded to a while ago, you have not heard the last of Junior Nomad. He flew in to Chicago a couple of days ago and today we embark on the last leg of the trip, the drive back to New York.
Wish us luck!
Trip miles 7581
Daily miles 723
After the lake Fitznomad and I reached Route 24 and took it northbound towards I-70. We passed through an interesting town called Leadville, presumably named for the product it was extracting from the mountains. The town looked a bit like some of the towns in Texas, but certainly more cheerful; I don't recall hearing any chainsaws either for that matter...
Note the mural depicting pioneers on the building to the left.
I imagine that if you live there you must grow excellent lungs...
We took the opportunity to tank the car in Leadville which ended up causing us all sorts of unnecessary consternation. Here's what happened. When the car was up in Independence Pass all of its components got cold. Then, we descended 2,000 feet and parked the car at the gas station in warm sunshine for a bit. Water condensed on the cold parts of the catalytic converters, so that we when we restarted the car the 'Check Engine' light came on and there were warning about the cats flashing on the console. Of course we didn't know why this happened at the time, only that the dashboard started to resemble a Christmas Tree, with far more yellow lights than green...
Obviously we were very concerned about this and were about to drive to a dealer in Denver to ask them to check it out. Luckily I called beforehand and one of the people there explained that the situation was probably nothing and that the problem would go away once the water evaporated.
Fitznomad was driving and I was dealing with the dealer so we didn't take too many pictures during this time. Here's a decent one nonetheless.
By the time we got to I-70 I had spoken to the dealer and most of my concerns had been allayed, so I was able to resume picture taking duties. 
The check cat and engine lights were on until we reached the plains of East Colorado, so we were both somewhat stressed about it for a good 2 hours or so.
Anyway, we passed Vail.
I was amazed that this ski resport was so close to an interstate highway. Off the top of my head I can't think of any place that is similar. Park City in Utah is certainly closer to a major airport but you still have to drive through mountain roads to get there.
The sights were truly spectacular.
We passed through an interesting tunnel. It was pretty long and quite noisy.
I knew in the back of my mind that at some point the great scenery would end and we would enter the plains of the Eastern US. Indeed, the landscape changed soon after we exited the tunnel, and we could see the flatlands ahead.
The ground became very flat very quickly once we reached Denver. We took I-76 northeast towards Nebraska.
There really wasn't that much to see along the way. We did meet a cool county sheriff when we stopped for gas somewhere around the time we took this picture. He was a friendly smiling man packing an extremely large handgun and a sheriff's badge on his belt. He seemed genuinely pleased to see out of towners.
We did see signs for exotic sounding locales.
One of the more interesting sights was a rancher using a helicopter to survey his property.
I-76 joins I-80 in Nebraska. Nebraska is quite flat and pretty featureless, but every now and again you do see something interesting. This came upon us in the middle of nowhere. 
It was very the largest object around for miles.
We also saw the Heritage Military Vehicle Museum.
And signs for other attractions as well.
By and large the landscape was pretty empty all the way to Omaha. At one point it was scarily empty when we pulled into a Shell gas station that had been hit by (I presume) a tornado. It was deserted and there were pieces of the station all over the place. It was very reminiscent of the town in Texas that I drove through earlier that had similar sorts of debris scattered around. It was spooky and we got out of there as quickly as possible.
It was completely dark by the time we got to Omaha, and I felt a sense of relief that one of the most remote parts of the trip was behind us.
Fitznomad and I left Aspen Tuesday morning for Omaha, Nebraska. Before heading out we wandered around Aspen for a bit to check it out in daylight. It's charming.
I was also greatly relieved to know that I could buy designer goods if the need arose.
Like Park City, Aspen has a chairlift in town. For some reason I find that very striking.
As usual, we decided to ignore my car's protestations and take the scenic route. We drove eastwards on Route 82 with the intention of meeting up with Route 24. And I am so glad we did! The views were just stunning.
It was also quite cold, as we were quite high up.
Route 82 becomes one lane in certain places, like in Italy. You have to negotiate with oncoming vehicles who would go first.
I don't know how I would feel camping here...
The driving was excellent.
When setting out we didn't know beforehand that we would end up taking Independence Pass, although we had seen signs for it earlier. I am so glad we did, as the views from there were extraordinary.
It's amazing to think we actually drove to that altitude. Fitznomad pointed out that it probably was the highest point he'd ever stood on, and I'd be hard pressed to think of anywhere I might have been that's higher myself.
There was a really nice observation platform there.
A beautiful alpine pond.
The drive down from the pass was a true delight.
The road was incredibly curvy and reminded me of the Nuerburgring in Germany, which is Mecca for car enthusiasts. It is about 15 miles long, has 172 curves and about 1000 feet of elevation change. This road certainly had curves and the elevation change was probably twice that.
It is a perfect second and third gear type road.
I'm frankly surprised how well the pictures came out given that I was comprehensively entertaining myself driving.
Fitznomad had probably learned to compensate for my driving by then...
At the bottom of the descent we encountered a beautiful serene mountain lake.
None of the pictures truly capture this, but the above one is the best. In parts of the state there just seemed to be nothing but power pylons with the odd power plant in the distance.
We then entered Ohio.
The main item of note in Ohio was a very large GM plant. It was good to see that domestic production was still occurring.
I was very happy to enter Pennsylvania. We were getting closer!
I wonder what had been blocked out...
The rest of the run was uneventful. Pennsylvania is a really long state, which I hadn't appreciated prior to the trip. Virtually all of the 400 miles we drove were picturesque, but the rolling hills did not lend themselves to being photographed and then it started to get dark.
