I suppose that there is nothing quite as dreary as a long drive back home after a picture perfect vacation spent in Maine. When the time came to leave our nest in Brunswick and say goodbye to our granddaughter we felt a reluctance to put the little slice of heaven that we had so enjoyed into our rearview mirror. Sadly reality was calling and we knew it was time to go.
It was raining rather heavily as we began to retrace the miles that had brought us. We sped along through Maine, then New Hampshire and a bit of Massachusetts. At a stop in New York state we were serenaded by a man with a surprisingly good voice and a very kind heart. He wished us godspeed and we set out for one more drive across the George Washington Bridge, a challenge in any kind of weather even for people like us who handle Houston traffic like professional Nascar drivers. Luckily we once more made it into New Jersey without incident even if the process of doing so was nerve wracking.
From an area near the Newark airport we had a glorious final glimpse of the massive New York City skyline. It was a beautiful sight by any standards. I had to laugh because the owner of an art shop in Portland had told us that in spite of all the wonderful paintings that he had for sale, it was a pen and ink print of the Big Apple’s skyline that was the most popular. I totally understood why that was so and wished that I too had purchased one of the prints that so reminded me of what we saw as we moved along the highway.
We had gone many miles for many hours so we stopped a a Service Center along the New Jersey Turnpike that was as good as the Buccee’s that we have in Texas (and now in many other parts of the South). The bathrooms were huge and impeccably clean. The food options were numerous. We chose Prêt and enjoyed lovely ham and cheese sandwiches on croissants. It was just what we needed to push on with our journey, We were feeling refreshed and ready to complete the last leg of the day.
As we drove along it occurred to me that we were close to Princeton University, so in the spirit of visiting as many centers of higher education as possible we briefly detoured just to walk around the campus for a time. It was as beautiful and awe inspiring as I had imagined. It reminded me of an American version of Cambridge. I recalled reading in Michelle Obama’s autobiography that her first reaction upon arriving at the campus as a freshman was stark terror. She wondered how it was possible that she had ended up there and felt an urge to bolt but knew that she had to push herself to demonstrate her mettle. Of course she was more than worthy and successful. The road to her amazing life was well on its way.
I have a cousin who once played football for Princeton. He is a tall strong handsome fellow who as a young man we lovingly called Superman/Clark Kent because he was both powerful and humble at one and the same time. I was glad to finally see where he had gone to college and felt even more admiration for him than I already had.
Because of our deviation from the original travel plan we ended up heading back to Delaware by way of Philadelphia. There was no time to stop there, but I had visited before and smiled at the thought of the Benjamin Franklin Museum, Betsy Ross’s house, the stairs that Rocky used to train for his fight, and Independence Hall. It is a great city with so much American history that it takes days to see it all. I truly believe that every single American should visit there and read about our Founders who launched the dream of a new kind of government of the people and for the people almost two hundred fifty years ago.
Those brave and intelligent men stunned a world order that did not believe that their experiment would be lasting, and yet here we are. I thought of the warnings they gave us about preserving our nation and realized that our government is not just a given. We have to work hard as citizens to ensure that it continues. Right now we are in an unusual place but also one that those brilliant men feared might one day come. It will be up to us to be sure that we do not let their dream die.
From Philadelphia it was a short hop to Delaware where we once again spent the night. I hate to admit that nothing about Wilmington spoke to me, but I was still glad to see it and add it to my list of cities that I have visited if only briefly. I realized as I counted Delaware it among my states that I have now seen every one of the fifty save for Idaho, Iowa, Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii. I suppose that my next journey needs to be in a westward direction through Iowa, Idaho and Oregon where I might also pick up Alaska with a cruise. Then I’ll only need to find a way to get to Hawaii and my state collection will be complete, a goal that my father was close to realizing before his untimely death. It would be up to me to secure his dream with a couple of extra places that were not part of our union back in nineteen fifty seven.
For the time being, our plan was to spend most of the following day seeing more of Virginia and traveling to Monticello to visit the home that it took Thomas Jefferson more that forty years to build. I suppose that he was a bit too busy doing other things to put it together quickly or maybe he was like my maternal grandfather who put together his home room by room until he had what he wanted. Whatever the reason, I was quite excited about finally viewing a place that had interested me for many years.
All It Takes Is A Little Love 