Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig!

Yesterday was Day 4 of my 2,400-mile trip from Phoenix to Columbia, Maryland. Woke up in Nashville. I had 1,733 miles behind me. Got on the road about 9:30 a.m., hit I-40 and sailed along at 70+ mph. It's pretty easy to navigate when you're on the same highway from Arizona to Virginia. It's the updated Route 66, kind of a romantic idea, but I'm glad to travel on the high-speed highway these days.

First thing I noticed were the pastel purple trees interspersed among the green trees along the highway. I kept looking to see if they were purple leaves on green trees or separate purple trees. I had to take pictures so I actually pulled over onto the side of the road, rolled down my window and took some. A huge dump truck nearly sideswiped me -- he was frighteningly close to me on the shoulder. That got my heart going! No problem staying awake after that!

I kept seeing the purple trees all the way into Virginia. I wonder why I've never seen them before.

At first I thought the purple trees must be indigenous to Tennessee but clearly that's not the case. It reminded me of when a pen pal came to visit me from Australia when I was in college. She was talking about how awful the men were where she lived and how one made her...ah...um...go down on him when he had crabs. What are crabs, I asked? She told me. For years, I thought crabs were something only found in Australia.

I ended up driving 500 miles yesterday. I passed the exit for Bristol, home of the Bristol speedway, site of a NASCAR race coming up in August. That was just before I crossed over the Virginia border. I know that in Virginia you have to have hands-free cell phone devices. My brand new Plantronics 975 bluetooth is very uncomfortable in my ear, even though its sound quality is far better than my more comfortable (but old: 2008) Jawbone, whose earpieces I kept breaking. The Plantronics has a wonderful little case that extends the battery life and protects it, which is perfect for me. I just wish it were more comfortable. I've tried all three sizes of ear pieces. All hurt. But I don't like tickets so I kept it in.

I also stayed within 4 miles of the speed limit most of the time. Sometimes, however, I got annoyed by some car or SUV that was too close for comfort and I'd roar away until they were a safe distance behind me and then calm down again.

Lunch was an Arby's on the run, which was costly because I dribbled Arby's Sauce on my prized Denver Broncos sweatshirt, and I can't get the grease spot out. I'll keep trying.

I was determined to stop before dark but still get as far as I could so my last day through D.C. traffic wouldn't be too long. After an inexplicable delay for nearly half an hour while they cleaned up some accident or spill or something, I pulled off into Staunton, Virginia, near the Shenandoah Valley.

I hit yet another Hampton Inn, this one with the tiniest toilet on earth that they passed off as for adults. My knees started killing me after the second day on the road, presumably because they disliked being in the same position for all those hours, so getting up and down from a position where my butt is lower than my knees is painful. (I should've taken a picture. Of the toilet, not of me on it. It really is teensy.) I asked for a handicapped room (you know what I mean), but it (apparently the only one they have) was already occupied, no doubt by someone else who'd gotten a glimpse of the miniature toilet. I'm going to write a letter to the Hampton Inn folks at headquarters. I just wrote a book, after all, where we (my co-author Mike Kephart and I) encouraged designers and builders to install comfort-height toilets, and here are little miniature things in a hotel chain that caters more to business people than families. Ridiculous!

I watched Kate Gosselin get voted off of "Dancing with the Stars" and then set out for a local food place. I was too late for everything except Applebee's and Chili's. Chains you can find everywhere. So much for local flavor.

Before I went to bed, I threw the little soap, shampoo, lotion, shoe mitt and shower cap into my bag to send to the troops in Afghanistan. In my five months away from home, I've collected probably 200 of those items from my various hotel stays for business and personal purposes. I would bring my own soap, shampoo and lotion and dump each day's take into my bag. In every case, the hotels replaced every one when I stayed more than one night. Thank you, hotels, for contributing to the comfort of our military personnel overseas!

After a good night's sleep (for a change), I set out this morning for my last 175 miles. It was rainy and drizzly nearly the whole way, which was minimally inconvenient until I got to I-66 not far from D.C. Despite taking my car off of cruise control, I started hydroplaning, which was pretty scary. It only happened half a dozen times for a second or two each time, and then that was it.

The I-495 Washington, D.C., beltway was running well, and I was doing great until I took the Route 29 exit about 15 miles away from home. HUGE delay. We just sat there for 25 minutes. Finally the emergency vehicles from whatever had happened let us through and I made it home mid-afternoon.

I'd gone 2,409 miles total. By myself. First time ever. It was easier and more fun than I'd anticipated, but I don't think I'd want to do it again. At least not for awhile.

My own place, my own bed, my friends, my DVR, my stuff...ah, it's so good to be home! And, it's such a gift to have my view back of those gorgeous, majestic green trees outside all of my windows. The leaves hadn't come out the last time I was home, about 3 weeks ago.

So I'm sticking around home for awhile. Well, except for going to Atlanta in two weeks to speak about social media at the Society of American Military Engineers annual conference. And then going to Denver to work with my co-author, Mike, on the next steps for getting the word out on our book, and maybe another little project....

Thanks for going on this journey with me via this blog!