The End of the Road

Roadtrip Map Alas, after seven full weeks on the road, we arrived in Woodbridge, VA, at Kristen’s parents’ house, marking the official end of our cross-country roadtrip. It was a fantastic vacation, an impromptu whirl around the contiguous states, visiting family, friends and lots of beautiful, scenic views along the way. Here are some stats to put it into perspective.

49 days 11,559 miles 25 state lines crossed $1718.65 spent on gas 19 nights sleeping in a tent 5 nights in a hotel 15 National Parks visited 1 parking ticket 0 speeding violations

The first thing we did was reunite with our two kitties who’d been under the careful care of Kristen’s family. To celebrate our homecoming as well as Carolyn’s 24th birthday, we set out to shop for some quality dinner ingredients, which was tough in this neighborhood. (We suppose beggars can't be choosers?) After failing to find humanely-raised chicken at Food Lion (boo), we walked out and drove further down the road to Harris Teeter. Stocked up for the evening, we returned eager to let loose in a kitchen! The celebratory feast consisted of grilled chicken, sweet potato and coconut milk mash, and a delicious strawberry goat cheese salad with balsamic vinaigrette.

Celebration Dinner

For dessert, Gary made a chocolate cake with rainbow chip frosting, with big “24” candles on top. Few things evoke childhood memories like rainbow chip frosting...

Carolyn is 24

It’s always bittersweet when a trip reaches its end. For us, it seemed like we’d been gone for about a week. We couldn’t have asked for a better return. And we can't wait to hit the road again, whenever that may be.