After 24 Days, 23 Nights, We Are Home Again

We had a lazy morning (woke up late again!), drinking tea and reading and writing before we headed to Carrboro for brunch. The town was still fast asleep on a rainy Sunday morning and we were the first ones  at Acme Food and Beverage Company, where Vicki had made a reservation. Cary and his wife Jay met us there and we had one last round of multi-faceted conversation plus some yummy brunch food (mine was poached eggs on top of a fried green tomato with hollandaise sauce on top of bacon and an English muffin). We learned a lot about the frustrations of a public school teacher who has spent her life in special ed. Cary's wife has her resignation letter written and is prepared to hand it in -- in the middle of the year. Cary is a GI doctor who is working on writing his dissertation to finish his PhD. His specialty is the esophagus. There is no end to the work that needs to be done in this world.

We decided as we were getting in the car that we would take the slower route home, on the smaller roads, even though we could have been home in under five hours taking the interstates. When we crossed into Virginia, that was the first time in 24 days, not even kidding, that we had seen another car with Virginia plates.  The people of Virginia were not traveling where we were going in January. Because we always intend to do it and we never really manage it, we stopped for soft serve ice cream even though it was still a little bit rainy. The Dillwyn Dairy Freeze was the perfect place to finish off our checklist for this trip.

Home in time for family dinner at Anna and Gordon's with a full table of cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles. Ahhhh.

Here are some of the numbers from the trip:

Total miles: 8384
Households/family units visited: 30
Highest elevation: 7200 feet
Diesel fuel used: 215 gallons
Average fuel consumption: 38 mpg
Average price: $3.46  (highest: $4.799, lowest: $2.959)
Gave away eastbound: 2 crates spinach, 1/2 crate arugula, 1 crate bok choy, 1/2 crate carrots
Gave away westbound: sweet potatoes, butterkin, honey, grains and beans
All along the way: 40 jars canned tomatoes: soup, sauce, stewed
Motel nights: 4
States: 20
Times we stopped at a Maverik gas station: 4
Most nights spent in one place: 4 (Denver) 
Most hours driving in one state: Kansas (two directions, very long state) 
Most miles in one day: 851 (hard and snowy)
Hours left on our audio book still not finished: 10 hours, 47 minutes
Surprise treat: Leila in the car with us for two days of travel
Surprise triumph: replacing a flat tire in one hour on a Sunday afternoon
Oldest people visited: Paul and Mary in Albuquerque, about 89
Youngest people visited: several college students of indeterminate age -- Storm, Kira, Annie
Total spent: $2182

The car did great the whole way, even though it didn't get the same mileage as our last VW Jetta -- but that's because this car is one of those that got caught up in the cheating scandal and now is engineered to lower the emissions of the diesel engine. It ran beautifully, no complaints.

Jon and I did great the whole way, not making each other crazy (after we ironed out a few things on the first leg of the trip), agreeing on all the various choices we had to make, enjoying all the visits and sharing in the storytelling. We have traveled together for 40 years now and we have learned how to keep me happy by planning where we will be sleeping every night and how to keep Jon happy by staying off the toll roads and using the smaller roads whenever possible. We ate all the food we need to eat for a long time. People fed us, generously and well, every day. We stayed healthy, which is pretty amazing.

It was so very nice to see so many people we haven't seen in such a long time, and to find out how everyone is doing, and to be reassured that even though the world seems to be in dire straits in so many ways, all of the people we saw are doing good work, taking care of each other, growing older and having a good time of it. That was a LOT of talking and we are all talked out now.