August Road Trip - Part 6 (Ohio and HOME!)

We left Decorah Sunday morning, as soon as we could get ourselves up and packed back into the car with bellies full of pastries acquired for all of us from a local bakery. We only got in on a tiny bit of clean up before we knew we needed to start the trek east (our pitstop was in Ohio - over a 10 hour drive AND this time we lost an hour). Various ones of us attempted to snooze along the way.

Around my (Janelle mainly wrote this post with family input) departure from CJP, I had reconnected with an alum who was so affirming of my work at CJP and also supportive in my process of healing from burnout. It was delightful to realize that Jackie and her family lived very close to our path home. They provided comfy accommodations for our crew of weary travelers, being flexible with our late arrival. It was a short but sweet visit, and meaningful to make an in-person connection after our smattering of long emails back and forth in the months prior. It was another experience of getting to see a friend in their home context, making the virtual connection feel even more meaningful going forward.

While it was hard to leave so soon, with many conversations I wished we had a luxurious amount of time for, we were all starting to hanker for home. We just had about 7 hours to go before we landed home tired, dirty and eager for our own beds!

There was definitely the need for some pillow screaming on the last stint, but I think we were all pleasantly surprised about how well we traveled together over many hours in cramped conditions. The long days didn't feel quite as long as we expected, and we didn't even make it through two of the handful of audio books we had checked out for helping the passage of time. That said, it's not hard to see how eager this gal was for freedom from a seatbelt! We were all excited coming up the driveway, with the parents probably feeling the most daunted by what awaited us. 

Part of what awaited us (not the daunting part) was dinner prepared by my mom for us! How lovely to land home to something other than packaged snacks. It was disorienting enough landing home in August after two weeks away, but these touches softened the landing considerably!

Home, sweet home!! It's been so good to go back through the trip together through photos and sharing memories. We've been home just over 2 weeks now. There were times in the lead up to the trip and even during it that I questioned whether it felt worth all the work. But there's no doubt in my mind at this juncture. And if it confirmed anything for me, it was that these are my favorite humans on the planet and spending time with them just makes me crave more of it! Again we are so grateful to my parents and Tibby who made this time away possible, and we do promise to consider carefully any future trips in August as long as we are still farming!!

P.S. There was some discussion at the time of this writing as to whether the humans really were dirty upon arrival home...

...but no one doubted that the car was! That's genuine Iowa dirt road dust on that car and it's unclear whether it was not getting around to it or nostalgia that kept it on there for over two weeks!