Home!

Tuesday, October 25

Even though I hadn’t slept well during the night, it wasn’t so hard to wake up. This wild mix of emotions was still dominated by the excitement of getting home. This was our day to get there.

Auggie and I took our morning walk, had our breakfast, packed up the van one last time and got rolling. Woo hoo.

We actually left Route 70 for a while – we would pick it back up later in the day. We headed south on Interstate 79 to Morgantown, WV. This was another little corner of West Virginia on our route, but again, we didn’t stay there very long. In Morgantown, we picked up Route 68 and headed east. After about 30 miles, we finally did it – we crossed into Maryland!

We were in the western panhandle of Maryland. There are lots of hills out that way. I say “hills” when before I might have said “mountains.” But based on the mountains we had seen on this trip, these just didn’t come anywhere close. We went up a hill, down a hill and then back up another. The elevation signs said 2,000 feet. 1,800 feet. Pshaw – we’ve seen higher than that!!! 

We drove past signs for Deep Creek Lake – I had wanted to stay there for our final night on the road, but it would have been too far to drive. We drove through Frostburg and Cumberland and along all the Maryland State Forests that are out that way.

At some point Auggie whined that he needed to stop. We pulled off at the next rest stop and stretched our legs. But for me, Auggie just couldn’t pee fast enough. We walked along the rest stop, but I was impatient with him. How exciting could this rest stop sniffing be when home was finally just a few hours away?

[And here’s where I have to say – bless his dear little doggie heart. Our whole trip, I did my best not to drive more than 4-5 hours per day because I wanted us to relax and not be stuck in the car too long. But for the past few days, I had been a woman possessed by the road and the drive and covering miles. But how to make the poor little furry man understand that? I kept telling him we were going home. And perhaps things started to smell more like home to him, too. I was just never sure he understood. And I probably never will – dogs don’t have words.]

I was eventually able to cajole Auggie back into the van … and off we went for our final leg home.

We finally started seeing signs for Washington, DC. Ooooooh, that was so exciting.

I stopped for gas in Frederick. For the first time in three-and-a-half months, I didn’t fill up.

We merged onto 270 South. And then we finally made it to 495 – the Washington Beltway.

We got off our exit, drove the familiar couple of miles to our house and finally, after all this time and all the marvelous adventures we’d enjoyed, we turned onto Fleetwood Terrace.

I drove the Champagne Chevy round the circle to our house, pulled it up in front and put the transmission into park. The odometer read 30,058. When we left, the odometer had been at 18,209 – that’s 11,849 miles of fabulous fun Auggie and I had had on our journey.

I opened up the side door and let Auggie out. He jumped out and sniffed his yard. He looked at me and I smiled. We were home.

The tenants who had rented from me for the summer had left the house in amazingly good shape. Our dear Fleetwood Manor had been taken good care of, and it showed.

I unpacked a few things from the van. The refrigerator first, then trash and laundry, toiletries and some other small things. The rest could wait.

I got take-out from my favorite Thai restaurant and watched a movie on my real-size TV that night. But before I settled completely in, I connected with a few neighbors to say hello and ask how their summers had been. And then came the inevitable question: “How was your trip?” 

Fabulous. Amazing. Awesome.

Empowering. Liberating. Giggle-inducing. Relaxing.

I had taken more than 1,900 photos while on the road. No one wants to sit down and look at all of them, so a task for the future will be to pick the highlights to share. There were so many stories. So many adventures. So many pains in the patoot. So much beautiful nature. So many beautiful national parks. So many critters. So many fun moments with my dog. So many great visits with my friends.

Coming home was bittersweet.

The trip was over. The next phase of my life would begin. And as scared and sleepless as I was the night before at the campsite, being back home in our cute little comfy house on Fleetwood Terrace, I knew that it would all be OK.