The escape trip is almost over. It has been successful, delightful, and we are encouraged to repeat it somewhere, sometime with some modifications learned on this one.

One learning point and a recognition of a universal truth came from driving a rental car somewhere over 1,100 miles through the South:

The Learning Point:

On my power drives across this country in pretty much every direction, i always cursed under my breath when i had to stop for gas. i wanted to get there as soon as possible, and my Navy watch-standing days had steeled me for long periods of awake. My longest straight solo drive was the 1,400 mile journey in twenty-two hours from the Southwest corner to Austin, Texas, made several times to see my daughter Blythe quite some time ago. There were a bunch of operations on ships that kept me awake for forty-plus hours. But now, new cars and me have changed the dynamic. The learning point:

The need for a gas stop is longer than pit stops required for men my age.

The Universal Truth:

It does not matter where i am driving, freeways in California big cities, highways and roads in New England, Interstates in West Texas with speed limits of 80 miles an hour, the South’s highways, and byways, anywhere in the Continental United States, Hawaii, Ireland, and Scotland, the Universal Truth applies:

Every driver on the road in front of me goes slower than i want to go and every driver behind me goes faster, or wants to go faster than i want to go.

A corollary to this universal truth:

i never, ever drive at a speed of which my wife approves.