Day 76...Mitchell, South Dakota to HOME!

I'm up bright and early at 5:00AM...some coffee...pack up the Escape...check out...and I'm on the road. Thirty miles or so out of Mitchell, I hit the fog...not the light fog we get here, this is the "pea soup" variety...visibility is cut to about a thousand feet...slow going for over two hours...then, the fog lifts as the sun gets higher.
Not long into Minnesota, I realize that I have made a huge "error". 76 days on the road, and I have forgotten my time zones. My Garmin's internal clock is set on "Mountain" time, and I'll be coming home on good old "Eastern" time...so...add two hours to my "ETA".
I roll through Minnesota, no longer fog-bound. I cross the river into Wisconsin...one more small "mountain drive". I'm rolling along until I get about 40 miles north of the "Dells"...then I hit weekend returning home south traffic. It's pretty intense...80 miles an hour or so...bumper to bumper...much concentration required...very tiring.
Then...I'm in Illinois...racing down the tollway...slow, with "toll stops" every twenty or thirty miles or so. As I approach Chicago, everything grinds to a halt. It's A Sunday, but it's still "rush hour"...it takes me over three hours to get through Chicago onto the Skyway.
Now...I'm flying...but...it's going to get dark soon, and I'll have to slow down.
I am absolutely "pumped" as I finally cross the border into Michigan...I'm "home", but not all the way. I-94 is a "nightmare...tons of construction...plus...it's dark now, and I'm getting pretty tired.
The last 200 miles are, to say the least, brutal. Now the Garmin is saying that my ETA is 11:00PM...then 12:30AM...then 1:00AM. Very slow, very tiring. Around Jackson, I hit a MAJOR construction area, and I'm stuck in traffic for 45 minutes plus.
Now it's around 1:45AM...I've been driving for almost 20 hours...but...I'm pulling into my driveway. I'm kneeling down and kissing my front steps...my cats are at the door...my home...my cats...my friends...my bed.
I'm home at last.