The path home can deserve as much attention as the place you set out to reach.

The return is usually treated as administration, the part endured once the real thing is over. That is exactly where the tiredness lands, where plans go wrong, and where a good day can be undone in the last hour. Deciding the way back in advance protects everything that came before it. How something ends has a strange amount of say over what you remember.

Give the trip home the same care as the way out: the time, the food, who is driving, what happens if it runs late. Leave a little earlier than feels necessary and take the dull reliable route.