Days 26 & 27 - More Mom & then Heading Home

We spent Saturday with my mom. It was really a rest day to prepare for our last leg of our trip. My niece Megan came over in the evening, and my sister Kathleen (her mom) visited and we made pork chops for dinner. Megan is getting married in the spring and it was great to catch up with her. Earlier in the day, my older brother, Gary, stopped by also.

Today, we left a little after 6 am from Rising Sun, MD, and we are heading north. I'm writng this on my phone in the car on the NJ Turnpike. We are hoping to get back to Stonington before sunset. it will be good to get home. I've had enough of riding in the car. The last few days with this cold has not been fun either.

Right now as I publish this it is 7:50 am and we are at mile 87.4 of the NJ Turnpike. We are streaming Sunday Morning Coffeehouse on WERU. Will update with news later.

Update: 8:10 am: passing NYC.

Update 8:45 am: As we enter Connecticut, we have returned to New England! Only about 7 or 8 more hours to go...

Update: 10:39 am

Update: 12:14 pm

Today's Final Update: WE MADE IT HOME!!! We left Rising Sun, MD, about 6;05 a.m. this morning and arrived home in Stonington, Maine at 3:45 p.m. That was record time for us... 9 hours and 40 minutes. We have never made it back from my mom's in under 10 hours before. It has taken more than 13 hours before when traffic was bad. It was a Sunday and there was no traffic, so we flew. Shane drove the whole way Thank God, cause I have this F'ing cold that makes me feel like crap. Below is us in our driveway with the Atlantic Ocean behind us. The journey is complete. 

Now we get to do the fun part of unpacking and we have loads of laundry to do, although we did do some laundry during our travels. We are so happy to finally be back home. Dorothy was right. There is no place like home. Below is the map of our travels today.

Day 4: To Independence, MO, Truman's Home

Outside of Harry Truman's house in Independence, MO.

Yesterday we traveled from St. Louis to Independence, Missouri. We are staying with Shane's step-brother, Trent, and his wife Laurie. We got to Independence early, so we stopped by the residence of President Harry Truman in Independence. Though we were unable to tour the home, we able to go into the house across the street, The Nolan House. The Nolan's were cousins of Harry that he would visit on weekends and his eventual wife, Bess, lived in the house above. While Harry was visiting the Nolan's, he went to this house aross the street to deliver a cake plate to Bess's family. Apparently that little errand took several hours. Harry and Bess eventually married and Harry moved in to this house with Bess and her mother.

Below are some photos from the Nolan house exhibit.

Young Harry Truman

Harry and Bess wedding photo

Our route from St. Louis to Independence, MO.