End of the neverending road

Last night I dreamed that I was driving, which seems kind of superfluous after all the driving we've been doing for the past two weeks: north to Canton for Christmas, south to Florida afterward, with overnight stops in South Carolina on the way down and North Carolina on the way back. 

We saw a lot of roads, mostly interstate highways but also South Carolina backroads bordered by cotton fields where the fluffy detritus of harvest lingered along the roadside. We hiked in two wetlands and walked along a beach where the water was warmer than the brisk wind, where we saw some guys surfing in wetsuits but no one else getting wet. We saw a little sun and a lot of clouds, felt the wind on our backs and heard the rumble and crash of waves, watched squadrons of pelicans skimming the surface for breakfast.

We visited my dad and brother and sister-in-law and brother-in-law and a niece and two nephews, shared meals and watched bowl games together, ate sushi and interesting cheese and a delicious ham and marvelous barbecue and a ridiculous amount of chocolate. We visited a shop selling fancy-shmancy oils and vinegars and came home with a few bottles that I will now have to figure out how to use in my cooking.

In Georgia, a brief stop at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge revealed ibises huddled in the tall grass and shore birds walking on thin ice, plus a few ducks and cormorants but little other visible life. Mostly we saw cat-tails and reeds and a narrow road surrounded by water.

How many miles of road did we see? I don't know, but we left Florida before the freeze hit and left North Carolina just before the snow and eventually arrived home to find a cold, snowy mess, but it's our mess so we embrace it. Next week I'll have to start driving to campus again but just for today I'd like to remain relatively motionless and look out my own window, so I'm giving the car a rest. (Except in my dreams.)