Home again

It was 1:30 a.m. when I backed the minivan into the driveway of our darkened home. Two days and 2,400.1 kilometers after bidding goodbye to Florida, we finally made it back. As I have after every long trip we've taken since we became parents, I quietly put my hand on the side of our car and gave a quick thanks that we made it uneventfully.

Well, we were chased by tornado and thunderstorm warnings out of Atlanta. And we spent a harrowing time on the I-75 in the middle of rains so intense that we could barely see the four-way flashers of the vehicle just ahead of us. And those rains dogged us continuously all the way to the border, at which point the gender-neutral weather-generating person saw fit to throw thick fog into the mix. But we picked our way through 30 hours of driving and safely delivered the little folks to their comfy beds.

We tucked them in as they doubtlessly still dreamed of sun, surf, sand, and spending time with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. My wife and I spoke often over these past couple of weeks about The Experience, and what they would remember and why. Our parents had done the same for us when we were kids, and our own memories of childhood vacations to faraway places loomed large in our minds as we tried to navigate our own family adventure.

At one point en route, I sat in a parking lot and updated my driver's log (I often keep tabs of where we stop, where, how far we've gone...I'm somewhat manic that way.) The engine was off, but I had the accessory power on because I was checking mileage. The defroster was on, and my wife said it smelled like the ocean. Here we were in deepest Ohio, and we could still smell the sea.

I wondered how long the smell would last. I wondered if I could save it somehow. One can always wish, right?

Logistical note: I took the camera and brought home enough pictures to seriously merit a new laptop with a larger hard drive. I'll start posting notes from the road and related images in the days to come. I hope you'll come along on the adventure with me.

In the meantime, I hope you'll understand why I don't post vacation entries in real-time. Because I write under my own name, I have issues with folks knowing when we're away from home. I like returning to an unburgled house, and the paranoid-geek that I am figures that thieves are just as likely to read blogs and put 2 and 2 together. That's the world we live in, I guess.

Your turn: Vacations from your childhood. Please discuss.