Road trip!

When is a vacation not exactly a vacation? Maybe when you zip through 14 states in four days, covering more than 2200 miles, and when this is your chariot...

What made the trip almost as much fun as a real vacation was my traveling companion—son Hal, otherwise known as Super-Dad. Although he wouldn't ever let me drive, I like to think I was helpful with navigation, selecting brewpubs for dinner via Yelp, finding NPR stations, operating our audiobook, and otherwise providing moral support.

The truck was full of Austin-stored household goods, bound for the kids' new/old home  (new for them, but first built a century ago!) in Maine. 

We thought the fact that our randomly-assigned truck advertised a Maine tourist attraction was a good omen to start the trip. And it must have been. We slipped in between two winter storms and had a relatively smooth and easy trip north. 

Next time I'll share more details about the ride. But for now, I want to brag a bit about the large number of states we crossed. Of course, it's a lot easier to tot up a long list of states when you head east rather than west, but it's still such fun to acknowledge numerically what a big, beautiful, and diverse country we live in.

First up, after several hours of northeast-trending travel, is our neighbor Arkansas...

That was all for the first day, and Day 2 only gave us one more, since Tennessee is so danged long, and we traversed it pretty much from tip to tip. Here's the western border, on the bridge over the Mississippi in Memphis...

But we started to add to the list in major fashion during a rainy Day 3. First came Virginia. You can't tell from this photo, but soon after crossing the border we started seeing more and more snow, leftovers from the previous week's big winter storm...reminders of our good timing!

we weren't in West Virginia long, but it still counts!

not long in Maryland, either...

then Pennsylvania, our destination state for the night

Sadly, I started our biggest state count day (#4) with a miss. I wasn't ready for our cross from PA to NJ, and our windshield had gotten so dirty from traffic throwing up muddy water that a quick snap wasn't properly focussed. But I thoughtfully had earlier taken this shot...

Then, the little states come quickly; however, not quite quickly enough, since for the last two, as you'll see below, it was already too dark to take photos (although that didn't stop me from trying!).

we just saw a small section of NY, too

we drove all the way across CT, but it still didn't take long...

new state! Hal figured it would only take us 20 extra minutes to let me check off RI

last state welcome sign before dark, thanks to the long by-pass around Boston

I think the sign in the red box is welcoming
us to New Hampshire...

...and finally to Maine, our destination state! (trust me)