The event, involving a police and fire escort to the West Side Christian Academy, where the Jacksons teach, was largely ceremonial. It turned out Elmer’s eagerness to get them home did just that a day early, and so they spent Wednesday night “at a secret, undisclosed location,” Elmer joked.

As for his thoughts after the 4,200-mile trek, Elmer had one foremost in his mind, he said: “There’s no place like home.”