Even though this is the last day of our trip, it doesn't feel as much like a vacation. That's because the only thing on the itinerary is to drive home. Still, it beats driving home from NY or even PA, which is just the way we designed it.
We slept in as late as we could and still manage to make check out. On the downside, we missed the complimentary breakfast. But thankfully there was a McDonalds just around the corner.
A quick side note about McDonald's all-day breakfast: as awesome as it is (the greatest thing since TiVo), the menu really varies from restaurant to restaurant. Some locations (like the one down the street from us) have multiple selections (including biscuits), where others just have a few items (mostly Egg McMuffins). So when we put up, I have to ask for first and second choice. And then we all get Egg McMuffins. Makes me appreciate my local McD even more.
We hit the road just after Noon and took 81 most of the way home. Luckily, traffic was pretty good. We had a few small traffic jams, but nothing major. The Virginia State Police were out in droves. I was constantly spotting them hiding in the trees. Unfortunately, they missed the most aggressive driver we saw all day. A guy in a black pickup was speeding, didn't slow down for a traffic jam, and almost hit a guy pulling a boat. We thought for sure he was going to impact. We were so close to the boat that I was worried that we'd get hit, too. He passed the boat in the emergency lane and then whipped it back into the road. We saw a State Trooper moments later, but was just far enough away that he missed the whole thing. Such a shame. I kept hoping for the next several miles that I'd see that guy get pulled over, but no such luck.
We keep ourselves entertained and relive the magic of the Big Apple ("the greatest city in the world"), we listened to the soundtracks of Hamilton (for which we couldn't get tickets, sadly) and Something Rotten! Interesting thing about the latter: two performers from the original cast (main character Nick and the Narrator) had moved on. Nick was originally played by Brian d'Arcy James (who we knew from Smash). But we actually liked the current Nick better. We'd never seen him before (his name is Rob McClure and apparently starred in the short-lived Chaplin), but he's edgier than his predecessor and really exuded the "mad at the world" quality the role requires.
Listening to Hamilton (which is really long, by the way, since the entire show is sung) really made me want to learn more about Alexander Hamilton (mission accomplished, Lin-Manuel Miranda). And since the show mostly takes place in NYC, it also made me wish that we had visited some of the historic locations while we were there. For example, Hamilton, his wife Eliza, and her sister Angelica, are all buried at Trinity Church, which we walked by a couple of times while we were in lower Manhattan.
We made it home just fine, though it finally started raining just before we got here. Got a little damp unloading the car, but still nothing like the deluge we had in NYC. Once we got the laundry sorted ( and started), we were able to settle in a bit. John and Katie had dropped off their dogs for the night while they went out of town. But that means we get to spend the day with them tomorrow before we have to go back to work on Monday.
Great ending to an awesome trip!
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