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 2 - Visiting Niagara Falls and On to Columbus

Mark and Shane at Niagara Falls

We started out early this morning -- around 8 a.m., which is early for us, from our hotel in Albany, NY, and headed west toward Buffalo and a bit north to Niagara Falls. February is definably off season for visiting the Falls, but it is open.

The boat ride, Maid of the Mist, was not operating, and the trolley that transport people to the different areas was not operating, but the Visitor Center was open and you could walk freely around with very few other tourists around to get in your way.

It was very cold, but not unbearably cold. My impression of the iconic falls was that I thought they would be bigger. In my mind they were much higher. It was still impressive and I'm glad we finally got to see it, but the hour we spent there viewing it and walking around was enough time for us.

From seeing the Falls we raced southwest to get to Columbus, Ohio before the snow storm hit father north. As we got closer to Columbus we encountered heavy rain, but eventually checked into the Holiday Inn in downtown. After we settled in we walked around the block in the pouring rain to find something to eat. We got a few slices of pizza and then came back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we are off to St. Louis. We hope to ride in the Arch.

The Holiday Inn in downtown Columbus, Ohio.

It is a long time to be in the car.