We're Home

 

Getting head-butted for this insane cat.

I turned the car off at 7pm in the driveway.

With that, it was over. I haven't totaled the numbers yet and, to be honest, they don't really matter.

I drove a lot and ate a lot of food that I shouldn't have eaten and caught up with friends and loved ones and friends who have become loved ones and just lived. We paid for a lot of tolls and bought little in the way of souvenirs.

Sean and I spent essentially seven days and nights attached at the hip and didn't kill each other.

We stepped foot or drove in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

We checked off most of what we wanted to check off. We missed only a few things.

I think it was a huge success.

Travel, simply put, is part of who I am. I love the planning and the strategizing and the organizing and the maintenance of it all.

Road trips are in my blood.

The repetition of what we did on this trip was great but there was also some stepping out of the comfort zone that was healthy as well.

As a pleased Rascal, the Squeaky Cat sleeps on my desk, I sit here wondering if this is it. Tonight, my answer is no. If the planets align, Sean will want to do this all over again in 2023.

He later confided to me that he enjoyed some aspects of the road meet in Philadelphia.

Part of being a "road enthusiast" is the study of roads and projects that have been abandoned and/or never completed. A highlight -- something I was looking forward to -- was New Jersey route 324. Only about a mile-and-a-half long, the roadbed once served as US 322 to and from the ferry that carried it across the Delaware River. When the Commodore Barry Bridge opened nearby in 1974, the ferry was closed and US 322 was moved to the bridge.

But, for some reason, New Jersey kept the road in their system, renumbering it as state route 324.

And it has gone mostly untouched since then. So we were able to drive it to the very end, and walk a short distance to the edge of the Delaware River.

Sean told me he enjoyed that also.

Following a return to Pennsylvania, we said our goodbyes and turned for home.

Eventually, the drive became a grind with Sunday afternoon traffic befuddling us, especially through New Jersey into New York.

But, finally, we pulled into the driveway, unloaded the car, and came into a cat that meowed his approval at us for returning as well as his scolding to not do it again.

Which I'll be doing again in September to go to San Francisco.

We'll deal with that soon enough.

Thanks to everyone who supported this journey -- from those who hosted us to that one special, crazy soul who kept an eye on Rascal to all of you who read these diatribes every night.

That encouragement got us to go and it was good for all of us. 

Now? Time to rest in my own bed and get ready for the week.

There was once a time when we'd basically live on Interstate 95 to go to and from Florida but almost not see it again for months after the trip was over. Oh, no. Not now.

It's in my back yard and I'll see it every time I step into the kitchen.

With that, this trip is over but the next adventure awaits.