Days 7 and 8
Day 7
We wake up early and get ready to go. While I am packing the car, I get to chit chat for a bit with one of the neighbors. She is Jamaican and speaks in a soft voice with a half-sung rhythm that I absolutely love. She calls me "baby" and "mami" and I feel the warmth pouring out of her through her voice, her eyes, and her mouth. This makes my morning.
We head out before 8 AM and drive and drive and drive on I95 until I am sick and tired of it. We stop a few times, Mikey takes it very well, and we are making good time. Until we reach Georgia. Here, traffic jam after traffic jam. It takes us over 4 hours to cross it. I am exhausted. Mikey is doing great, he slept through most of it. We stop in Beaufort SC and spend the night with friends. It's still sunny when we get there, so the kids play in the pool, then eat pizza and play, while the grown ups catch up. We go to bed early, we still have a long way to go.
Day 8
We all go out for breakfast, to give everyone a last chance to catch up. Then start the drive back home. The first hour is great, we take the back roads and I love driving in the early sun. I try to take it in, the shaded highway and back roads, the lakes glistening in the sun, even the turkey vultures cleaning up the night's road kill.
Mikey is good. He is used to being in the car now, not impressed by anything outside, but content to play with his new toys and study his maps. The rest of the day goes by uneventfully, and we get back home on time. Tired, but in good spirits.
So now, as I am wrapping this up, I feel a bit nostalgic. I really loved taking this trip with Mikey, and everything that it brought me. Over the past few months I have been so engulfed in my own pain that I did not pay attention to Mikey's. These past few days have been an eye opener, and we have reconnected. He told me a lot of things, what he feels and what he thinks. And I listened. He asked questions, and I answered. It was not just the adventure, the fun, the learning and the discovery of the world around us, but of the world within us and the bridges between the two of us. This was a journey not only in space but also in our hearts and minds. I am happy we did it. And let me tell you, I am ready to start planning our next trip!
We wake up early and get ready to go. While I am packing the car, I get to chit chat for a bit with one of the neighbors. She is Jamaican and speaks in a soft voice with a half-sung rhythm that I absolutely love. She calls me "baby" and "mami" and I feel the warmth pouring out of her through her voice, her eyes, and her mouth. This makes my morning.
We head out before 8 AM and drive and drive and drive on I95 until I am sick and tired of it. We stop a few times, Mikey takes it very well, and we are making good time. Until we reach Georgia. Here, traffic jam after traffic jam. It takes us over 4 hours to cross it. I am exhausted. Mikey is doing great, he slept through most of it. We stop in Beaufort SC and spend the night with friends. It's still sunny when we get there, so the kids play in the pool, then eat pizza and play, while the grown ups catch up. We go to bed early, we still have a long way to go.
Day 8
We all go out for breakfast, to give everyone a last chance to catch up. Then start the drive back home. The first hour is great, we take the back roads and I love driving in the early sun. I try to take it in, the shaded highway and back roads, the lakes glistening in the sun, even the turkey vultures cleaning up the night's road kill.
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