“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.”

Jack Kerouac

Thursday’s drive was a mixture of just about everything – especially when you think about the amazingly diverse topography of these United States.

We started out on Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania – in the Allegheny – before cutting down through State College, Lewistown and Harrisburg through some beautiful landscape. Things got beyond busy driving through the heart of Philadelphia, then all the way to a standstill passing into New Jersey. But the route to Sea Isle City on the Garden State Parkway was a pleasant drive, and we delivered the children to Pop-Pop and Mimi, their other grandparents.

After a very short visit we had to hurry down to Cape May where we had a ferry reservation for 4:30. The 90-minute ride to Delaware was relaxing and refreshing and then we drove through meandering and beautiful farm-strewn countryside, both Delaware and Virginia, until we crossed the Chesapeake Bay bridge/tunnel into Virginia Beach, where we finally gave out and stopped for the night with our brother Tom McMahan.

Having the children for 16 days was everything we wanted it to be and then some. I felt, this time, that I bonded deeply with five-year-old Geoffrey. Then David and Beks are creative, imaginative, intelligent, beautiful, deeply engaged with their emerging sense of independence and beginning to lean in to the emotional wonder and complexites of becoming full-on teenagers.

Rebekah and I are, in two simple words, both blessed and exhausted.

I have so much more to share about this adventure, but we have to get on with the day here in Virginia Beach before returning to Tarboro to see (hopefully) evidence of good rains and productive landscaping.

Peace to all of you from the road – day 18.

– DEREK