Home Again Home Again

We are back. We rolled in last night, the 4th of July, at 11:30pm.

The last few hundred miles in the car, we pointed out the fireworks to each other as our final ‘car game.’ It was after 10pm and I heard Andrew and Gladys talking.

“I remember everything that is in our house,” Andrew boasted.

“I remember everything too,” Gladys agreed quickly.

“I hope there is really ripe fruit at home now. I can’t wait to see!”

“Ripe fruit!” George agreed.

“I don’t think so,” my husband replied, “or at least I hope not.”

I chuckled to myself. “I threw away all the fruit on the counter before we left. There won’t be any food at home, much less any over-ripe fruit.”

“No, Dad, I meant the raspberries!” Andrew explained.

Ah, yes, the raspberries in the backyard. They were ripening when we left. I had told the kids they might be ready when we returned home.

After 23 days, nine National Parks, 11 states, and 6,425 miles, one might think five reasonably intelligent humans would come to understand each other implicitly.

No, of course not. We are who we are.

I do think we all grew a little closer. We wrote another chapter of shared history. We made some new connections. We all learned something new every day.

And, we made a really, really big mess of the truck. (Which, as I reminded my husband, is WHY.WE.BOUGHT.THE.TRUCK - yes, we bought the truck to use it. And, boy-oh-boy did we use the truck - inside and out.)

We had a really, really good time. And, I am going to tell you all about it, page by page from my journal – the highlights, the changed plans, the minor calamities, and even a few dead animals.

My several memory cards are downloading as I write.

I am not sure what to say about not having internet access for 24 days. That is probably a post in itself, but I will say that I devoured the posts written by my guest-bloggers like a starved animal wandering out of the desert. Wondering what my friends would write left me anticipating home more than anything else.

I loved them all, every last post – every word. They made me nod and smile and even brought a tear to the eye now and then. Yes, I have my googlereader set up to show me my favorite blogs – but having my blog full of posts from my friends was better than ten sacks full of birthday cards.

Thank you all. Sincerely.

I already commented on all of them.

Tomorrow I will begin transcribing my epic tale.

We conquered the mess before sunset tonight. The memories will last forever.