November 8, 2009: The drive home

I started out by attending Mass at St. Luke's Church in Erie, PA. It was the closest Catholic Church to the hotel I was staying at. While the church itself was fairly boring looking (it still looked like a church, however), the priest gave an excellent homily. He reminded parents to be a good influence on their children as they would seek other influences if the parents were negligent. He talked about the horrible events that happened at Fort Hood. Overall, it was a Mass that helped me to recharge a bit.

Finally, I started on the long drive home. I decided to take I-86 this time and then head up through I-88. First, I didn't feel like wasting $14.00 on tolls on the Thruway. But, I've been through I-90 in New York so much that it's boring. The last time I traveled I-86 was when I began my cross country trip. I did it all in the dark last year. So, this would still be something new for me.

When I first got on I-86 in New York, I wondered whether I might still be in Oklahoma. The road conditions were terrible. But, they eventually smoothed out. I was getting very tired from all the intense driving over the last couple of days. I stopped for a few minutes at a rest stop and really enjoyed the ability to just relax.

Gas seemed to be about $2.75. I missed southern Missouri where it was in the $2.40 range for the most part. I had just over half a tank and kept holding off on stopping because I wanted to have as much daylight as possible.

I-86 was a lot more pleasant to drive in the daylight than it had been at night when I began my cross country trip last year.

I ultimately got gas around Exit 3 on I-88. That was a big mistake as I paid $2.85/gallon. I think a couple of exits farther up, it was around $2.75 again. But, I just wanted to fill up and drive without worry the rest of the way.

As I drove further on I-88, it was shortly after 5:30. It was much darker at 5:30 here than it was in Missouri.

I got home shortly after 7pm. In a way, the trip home was like a perfect "conclusion" to the events that began when I left my previous job, last year. At that point, as I noted, I had driven I-88 and then I-86 in the dark, heading west. While that trip was meticulously planned out for the next couple of weeks and all the way to the West Coast, it was a trip of discovery. There was still an entire region of the United States that I had not yet visited (the Northwest) and I had no idea when I would be coming home. And, despite the enormity of the trip last year, I still was unable to count Texas as a visited state.

Now, a year later, I have a job and I finished a brief trip out to the Midwest and South. I managed to add Texas as a visited state. I also have more specific plans for my own business. Last year, I went out along I-88 and I-86 in the dark but this year, I came back the same way, mostly in the light.