Day 19 - Home

Day 19
Richmond, IN - New Boston, NH
Miles Driven - 855.8
Total Time in Transit - 14h 35m
View from hotel - OUR YARD!


Last night was bad.
Not only was the Days Inn filthy and smelly and noisy, I spent the entire night sick with worry about my lost ipod.

I could have dropped it at the rest stop where we had leftover Mexican food. That was about a 5 hour drive from here.

I also could have dropped it at the gas station where we fueled up last night. That was a mere 4 hours away. In the wrong direction.

As worries tend to do, my worries had a party in my head, delightfully prancing about, multiplying, and extrapolating into all sorts of mind-boggling contingencies.

I didn't have a passcode on my ipod and it was connected to my email for the trip.
My itunes account was open and available on it.

And the pictures.

Thousands of pictures of our trip. Including my only pictures of bringing my only son to college.

I finally gave up on the idea of trying to sleep when the sun worked its way through the grimy curtains and set the mold spores in the room to twinkling like asthma-inducing fairy sparkles.

I dragged myself out of bed, pulled on a sweatshirt, and headed down to Towanda to tear it apart in a desperate last attempt at finding my ipod.

Yes. I found it.

It was tucked sideways and standing on end in a compartment in the dashboard. I had looked right at it and run my hand over it last night, but in the dark, I hadn't even noticed it.

I was so happy that the sound of the 6:13 train didn't even bother me.

Much.

I ran back into the room and Kerri looked at me blearily through the swirling cloud of mold spores.

"You found it, didn't you?" she asked.
I smiled, but stopped quickly because mold spores were getting stuck between my teeth.
I nodded. "Yup. Let's get the heck out of here and go home."

The parking lot. The tan bridge on the right is the train tracks that run right next to the motel.

The view from our room. Now, in the light, I can see other, possibly less filthy, hotels.
Dang.

Hey! That's our wedding anniversary!

I took a few pictures to help us remember our stay in Richmond.

Moldy shower curtain.

Moldy tub drain.

Moldy bathroom floor.

More moldy bathroom floor.

Obligatory dog, howling from the back of the pickup in the parking lot.

Hey, Days Inn - use us for your next commercial!

We hit the road and kept hitting the road.
We drove all day and well into the night, stopping only for gas and, mysteriously, ice cream.

Somewhere selfie!

We spent a lovely half hour or so in Pennsylvania.

Somewhere else selfie!

Storm Clouds of Doom™.

Ice cream in New York!

The trip odometer. Wait for it...

BOOM! 8,000 miles in 19 Days.
Actually, the final tally was 8,299.2 miles when we got home.

We eventually got home just after midnight.

Our chicken was comfortably roosted in the maple tree outside the kitchen.
The beds were made.
The bathroom was mold-free.

We had a very, very good night's sleep.

And when we woke up the next day, we got the text from Alex.

Time to start packing again.