Our routes from Yellowstone National Park through Wyoming and South Dakota, to Iowa, Illinois, Chicago, Dayton, and then home...

Here's a birds' eye overview of our long trip home from Yellowstone National Park.

Here's our route on the first day leaving Yellowstone to explore other parts of the vast West, including the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, WY, and the Devils Tower National Monument.

And here's part of the second day after leaving Yellowstone, where we make stops to visit Mt. Rushmore National Memorial, Custer State Park, Wind Cave National Park, and then the next day to visit Badlands National Park, and the famous Wall Drug which began in 1932 with free ice water (and signs everywhere pointing in its direction), and finally the incredible Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.

Here's our route from Mitchell, SD, through the Iowa cornfields with a stop to see the Amana Colonies, and then onwards to Chicago, IL, the windy city on Lake Michigan, where we can spend a full day in the city of architectural boat tours, the Art Institute of Chicago, the famed Palmer House Hilton Hotel, and of course hot dogs!

Lastly, here's the route home from Chicago, with a stop in Dayton, OH, for the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, which some say is even more spectacular than the Air & Space Museum in Washington, and another in Shanksville, PA, for the Flight 93 National Memorial (Conor slept through our last visit on the way home from the Grand Canyon, so we have to stop again!).