"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe that you're here!!!!"

Vicki screamed at Teri and me at least 20 times when we showed up on her door step unexpectedly New Year's Day morning. Teri got the idea to take off and drive the 700 miles to help them get settled in their house. I couldn't come up with a really good reason not to, so about 90 minutes later we were on the road.

We were in a gas station at midnight on New Year's Eve somewhere in West Virginia. Not exactly a partyin' place, but there were gunshots all around. Following the GPS directions, we ventured through a bit of Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware before we checked into a motel about about 3:30 in the morning after going the last 100 miles creeping along through snowy mountains.

After we slept for a couple of hours and then gave her the surprise of a lifetime. We worked like dogs for two solid days and when we left, the house was cleaned, the kitchen, school room, living room and dining room were pretty much liveable. We started out on our drive home this morning right after breakfast and 11 hours later, I was watching my kids carry my stuff in the house.

It's good to be home. It's even better to have taken a direct route which involved 2 highways to get here.