Vacation - Epilogue: The Ride Home

On our last night in Vegas, we took the boys to buy a couple of souvenirs with the money their grandparents and aunt had given them. Gus stepped out into the night-time heat, looked around at the flashing, dancing lights of the city, and, pumping his fists declared, "This is Vegas, baby!"

We knew it was time to go home.

Somewhere outside of St. George, Kelly turned to me and said it was probably a good idea to go back to the Bumbleberry Inn just in case Wildcat Willie was there. If he was, Kelly argued, it was a sign that we should bring him home with us.

So we went out of our way - 44-miles round trip - to see if a feral cat was waiting for us to bring him home. The boys were delighted,convinced Willie would eagerly jump into the arms of his new human family. For my part, I prayed to any and all deities who would listen that the feral mouser would be nowhere to be found.

With great anticipation, we turned into the hotel parking lot and pulled around back to where our room had been. Willie was nowhere to be found. Kelly and Gus walked around the hotel's perimeter searching for any sign of the cat, but came up empty handed.

With equal disappointment, we left the Bumbleberry Inn to head home: cat free.

But all was not lost! On our way out of Springdale, we stopped off at the Springdale Fruit Company to enjoy the shade and fresh organic ice cream and smoothies. If you ever get to Springdale, make sure to visit the Fruit Company!



This first family vacation provided us with some great memories and brought us closer together as a family. And best of all, we didn't come home with any cats!















There goes the college fund!