Trip Complete!

Unlike the first twelve days or so of my trip, the last five were about visiting with old friends. From Memphis, I went to Birmingham, Alabama and spent time with my friend Bobby, a guy I've known for many years, since he was sculpting for DemonBlade Games, my miniature wargaming company. We played games, both board games and World of Warcraft, pretty much non-stop for two days. That is at least one flavor of what I consider the essence of a good time.

Next, I went to Atlanta, Georgia and spent about a day and a half with another wargaming friend, Dave. Dave lives in this incredibly cool converted warehouse, a type of living quarters I've always wanted to try that has also been a difficult thing to try while raising kids. That visit meant more games!

Charlotte, North Carolina was next where I visited Ray. Ray's not a game-player, but that doesn't mean he isn't a great guy. (Heh, heh - Ray, I hope you're reading this!) I met Ray's girlfriend, Elaine, and her daughter, Kaitlin, too. It was very relaxing to spend some time with them and I actually pulled out my guitar from the back of my Jeep and gave Kaitlin a lesson while I was there. The whole "we all get up at 5:30am" thing was just awful, but that's what I get for visiting on a weekday.

After Charlotte, I made the last drive of the trip, home to Rockville, Maryland and Olympia and the kids. I was pumped up with adrenalin in anticipation of finally getting there, so I picked up a hitchhiker just a short way north of Charlotte, both to help him out and give me some distraction from just sitting there driving. He gave me the name "Texas" and went on pretty much non-stop with some youthfully idealistic political views of the sort a self-proclaimed anarchist tends to spew. He was clearly a bright kid, so I hope he wakes up to reality one of these days. He also took it well when I poked a little fun at his ownership of a cell phone and the conflict with anarchist principles.

I dropped off Texas in northern Virginia, just half-an-hour from home and then proceeded to surprise Olympia at work, hours before she was expecting me to show up. If you ever want to feel cared for, take a little time away. The coming back is great. If it backfires, though, I hope you'll have learned something else equally important.

I didn't really get to surprise the kids the way I wanted. I'd estimated my arrival for Friday and ended up making it there two days earlier. I wasn't going to tell them, but just show up, but I couldn't so easily keep Olympia in the dark. Unfortunately, she told her mother, Elizabeth overheard her telling her mother, and her mother went and told Katerina and Gregory even though she'd been told not to do so. Some people are just so good at spoiling things. Grrrr!

All-in-all, I was on the road about two-and-a-half weeks and drove 5,265 miles. I am so glad I took this opportunity rather than, say, working an extra two weeks at Microsoft and then flying. I had new experiences, refreshed my love for the country I live in, reconnected with old friends not spoken to for too long, and disconnected from the work setting long enough that I was happy to be going back to it. I highly recommend such things to everyone.