June 23

It's been a long day of driving and then flying and then driving some more, but Abby and I are finally home.

My mom came by to give good-bye hugs, and then not much later, we said farewell to Bobby, Reaya, Brendan, and Bri and hit the road. As planned, we swung through Dunkin' for some delicious donuts (and coffee for me) before pointing the car toward BWI.

We were plenty early so I was able to scout out (and wait for) Arby's roast beef. And then I picked up a little souvenir for my girl: a stuffed Maryland blue crab. (The toy-kind, not the food-kind.) She instantly fell in love and named him Clawbert. 

Anyway, there were some travel delays involved that necessitated a literal run from one terminal to another in Las Vegas, but the important thing is that we made our flight, were able to use our A boarding passes, and got home sans major hiccups.

As I sit here in my usual evening spot, I feel a sense of deep satisfaction and gratefulness. Was it a perfect trip? No. There were a few moments of tension and frustration because we're human. But was it good nonetheless? Absolutely. Abby and I traveled a grand total of 508.6 miles in the Silver Bullet (the 467.8 in the image plus the 40.8 miles that we drove to Bobby's from the airport before I figured out how to reset the tripometer). That's more than 500 miles of just-us time that featured lots of random chit-chat, lots of light-hearted banter, and even a few more serious moments, too. 

In a nutshell, it was priceless time with my one and only daughter who has grown into a beautiful young adult so much faster than I ever could have imagined possible. So for that gift, I am grateful.