Final trip reflections

Alright, so before I move on to the updates about my real life, I need to wrap up a few things about the trip.

• Driving across the country is a great experience that I highly recommend. I have a totally new appreciation for how geographically, culturally and even liguistically diverse the country is. It sometimes makes we want to break out in horribly cheesy patriotic songs. Seeing brief snapshots of places in the rural areas to the cities was inspiring. I have a deeper bond with this place I live and I wouldn't trade that for anything.
  
  
• Travelling with someone who can make you laugh is invaluable. No matter how grumpy, anxious or exhausted I was, Katharine cracked me up. Once she made me laugh by pointing out that one of her antics would have made me laugh three days earlier when I still thought she was charming. When we realized that I became rather unweildy when I got hungry or missed a meal, Katharine looked at me sideways and annouced officially, "Three squares a day for you. No matter what we have to do to make it happen so you don't turn into Voldemort." Katharine helped me to pull out of my funks and laugh at myself, which in turn allowed me to be open to all the wonderful things the trip had to offer.
  
  
• I've said it over and over, but I think that something unexpected that I learned is that what's outside the window during the long drives is as much a part of the sightseeing as walking around different cities. Watching and appreciating the landscape was moving. Katharine and I often had very different experiences with what we were watching (I was hearing Hayden's "The Heavens are Telling the Glory of God..." while Katharine was pondering poverty cross culturally during our rainstorm.) And that is great. The scenery outside can prompt almost any kind of realization and allow one to lay out an issue and truly wrestle with it. And when that gets too tiring there's bound to be a trusty motel 6 around the corner.
  
  
• This road trip served an important purpose for me in this exact moment in my life. It provided a transition between Boston and California. Had I hopped on a plane after my teary goodbye and ended up in San Jose that afternoon, my system would have undergone a huge shock and I would have felt thrust into the stresses on this end. Instead I was able to spend several days journeying through the country before this life change, thinking about it and being fully distracted from it. Laughter and awe were two of the most powerful forces during my days and I needed that. I needed a separate trip to focus on, to enjoy and to help me believe that I was really, truly going to end up in California after all of the work and painful goodbyes that made it happen.
  
  
  

There is a final word I must say about our third beloved companion on the trip.

RIP TomTom

You served your fellow travelers well, never giving up when they veered off course, yelling incessantly when they took a bathroom break, recovering from heat stroke and refusing to complain when you were stuffed under the seat or in the glove compartment at every rest stop. There were signs something was wrong, such as when you tried to send us to the post office and we ended up in someone's yard or when you begged us to "turn around immediately" in the desert. It was all too much in the end and if you were half as tired as we were, we understand why you refused to turn on during our last day on the way to the airport. Your elusive menus and inability to recognize attractions such as the Grand Canyon or Graceland were quirks that we will miss dearly. You kept us on the course and we will search for the perfect fuzzy tennis shoes before we lay you to rest. Goodbye TomTom.

Final stats:

Distance covered: 4,152 miles
Number of GPS devices working by the end of the trip: 0
Plants alive at the end of the trip: 2/2 (!)
Number of chain restaurants eaten at: 4 (all local, mind you)
Number of Harry Potter books finished: 1
Number of times tears were shed due to laughing too hard: 3
Number of times we listened to "Jackson" by Johnny Cash: 8
Meals with vegetables in them: 4

All in all, a success.