Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Home Again - Or To Borrow From The Hobbit...

...There And Back Again - so went the trip to Arkansas to visit Brendan. I left his place yesterday at 0840 local time or 0940 EDST (my time in NY). I arrived in Washington, PA at 2355 (1156PM) EDST last night - after driving 887.3 miles. That was 14 hours and 15 minutes and included stopover time for rest stops, gas and food of 1 hour 15 minutes. Total drive time was 13 hours. I am pretty certain that is the longest I have ever driven in one day, I think my prior record was approximately 750 miles. I was up for it though and feeling good for 99% of it. Getting out of my car and walking to the front desk of the motel, to check in, was the most difficult part - my legs were stiff, numb and rubbery at the same time.

I drove the rest of the way today, starting out at about 0920 EDST from the motel in PA and drove about 408 miles or so and got home at 1655. That amounted to 7 hours 35 minutes total time with stops and 7 hours of actual drive time. The drive was exacerbated by heavy downpours and fog on an off through about 1/2 of my drive through PA, then more rain/mist in NJ and NY and about a 25 minute delay getting over the George Washington Bridge and then the regular crappy NYC rush hour traffic.

All in all though, not a bad bit of driving. I kept thinking last night that all I had to do was down a bottle of extra strength 5 Hour Energy and I could have driven it straight through. I was happy that another thought pushed that one aside, the thought of me being found wrapped around a tree along the highway. That was all I needed as impetus to stay overnight in a motel.

I already miss Brendan down in AR but am happy to be home too. Truly a bitter-sweet feeling.

All the best,
Glenn B