Road Trip: End

Yellow Car, Amelia Island, Florida, Day 1

I took two days off from posting because of the drive we had to make from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, back to Orlando. We started out from Gettysburg on Friday, stopping at Monocacy National Battlefield in Frederick Maryland. We stopped so that my wife could look at Lee's lost Special Order 191. it's currently at Monocacy until 31 October, at which point it returns to the Library of Congress. I left my cameras in the car because the special protocols surrounding the viewing of the document demands that the orders could not be "photographed under any circumstances."

After viewing the orders and the surrounding display we hit the road again, moving on down the expressway, avoiding downtown Washington DC, traveling through Virginia, until we finished the day traveling bu stopping in Wilson North Carolina. The next day we hit the road for the last leg, traveling over 600 miles until we were home in Orlando. I spent the day unpacking, cleaning around the house, and completely cleaning the Prius inside and out. When I finished the Prius looked as clean as the day I drove it home from the dealership.

National Memorial Arch, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, Day 4

How did the Prius perform? It performed flawlessly. Over 3,500 miles round trip, from Orlando to Toronto Ontario Canada and back, through Georgia, North and South Carolina, Maryland, Delaware,Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and into Ontario, through the mountains and across the flats, it averaged 51.5 MPG. Along some legs, such across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and the lowlands of Virginia into Delaware, the Prius averaged 58MPG. Even in the mountains of Pennsylvania where we stopped in Emporium the Prius managed a respectable 52MPG. It managed that high an MPG because even though it cost us energy going up mountains, we pretty much gained it all back with the regenerative system coasting down the other sides. On some of those roads we hit 65mph and more. I watched the battery monitor out of the corner of one eye, and we managed to completely charged the battery more than once. I have never done that before or since. The Prius is an incredible touring car.

The First United Methodist Church, Emporium, Pennsylvania, Day 11

We learned a lot from just traveling the distance, meeting people, and getting to know about the places where we stopped. We learned to be travelers instead of tourists. We spent as much as practical with local businesses (I really dislike chains) and looked far beyond just the superficial of each place where we stopped. I'll have a bit more to write about later when I can get a little distance in time. The trip was intense, in a very good way.

Now we're home and I'm going through the thousands of photographs I took. I have no idea what the final tally will be, but the first card I have was filled on the trip and contained 1,733 photos. For me that's a lot, and I have four more cards to go through. And I'm post processing everything through Lightroom 4.1.