The Long Way Home

We began heading back south on Wednesday after our 3-day trip up to the Boston area. Our first stop on Wednesday afternoon was at Marsha & Gerry's one last time. We had a nice, quiet visit with them, and we were off bright and sort of early the next morning heading to Dane & Debbie's to get the U-Haul trailer (for our luggage) and the doggies (who were riding in our cargo area). The dogs were quite happy to see us, but they stuck to Roger like glue...you could tell they were concerned we'd leave them again.
Then came the surprise...Dane called us on Wednesday night while we were in NY. He was asking about dinner plans for Thursday, but he told me that there was going to be a surprise guest. I forgot to mention it to Roger. So, it was even more of a surprise to Roger to see MARK from Berlin showing up for dinner at the Howard's!! I know it meant a lot to Roger to see Mark again (he worked with Roger in Berlin in the IM section). I didn't get any good photos of the surprise moment, but I think you get the gist.
Mark was back in Washington for some training the week we were passing through. It was great to catch up with him for the night that we were in Virginia.
Dane, Debbie, and I had talked about doing something for Roger's retirement now that his official "reporting to work" time was over (his official retirement date isn't until Nov. 30th). We decided on an ice cream cake which Shannon snuck away to get for him - she also decorated it. Here's Roger's retirement cake - 40 years to get this thing!!
We set off bright and VERY early on Friday morning heading to Roger's friend Ronnie's house in the Asheville, NC area. This was to be our longest day by far, and after we arrived there, we had to drop the trailer at the bottom of his hill (couldn't get up the driveway with it) - so I had the opportunity to dazzle them with my trailer-parking skills! After that, Roger and Ronnie went back down the hill to get our luggage but also to load our TV that we had shipped to Ronnie (we needed a TV first-thing Monday morning when they came to install our cable in FL). And, yet again, somehow, I managed to miss getting pictures of Ronnie and his wife, Ginny, for the blog! But the good news is that Ronnie and Ginny are snowbirds and live in St. Petersburg for the winter (the town closest to us!). So, we'll see them again soon. We had a lovely dinner with them and Ronnie's daughter, Rochelle, and her family. Fortunately, she has two small boys close in age to ours, so I think the boys had a good time that night.

We were off early again the next morning heading for Valdosta, Georgia. Why Valdosta? Because it met our criteria of 7-hour driving days - which amounted to about 9 hours of travel each day...about all we could stand. Plus, we were looking for pet-friendly hotels, and Valdosta had them. Unfortunately, the hotel insisted that folks not leave their dogs unattended in the rooms, so we were stuck eating in for the night. Roger got us some tucker from the Outback Steakhouse next door. The hotel also offered ice cream that evening, and Roger brought some of those to us as well. Even the doggies got in on the act. Here's Meggie enjoying her vanilla ice cream - she was in heaven.
We set out early the next morning as it was to be our last day on the road. Here's the gang (dogs already loaded before breakfast into the car) outside of the hotel with Valfrid + U-Haul. I was beginning to feel so weary of traveling myself - like we were a rock band -- 5 nights in 5 different cities! Ugh. Jed was crying the last 2 mornings saying the he didn't want to travel anymore...we heard him loud and clear, and we shared his sentiment.