Final Road Trip

Well, we're finally home after 14 hours of hammer-down driving. I wouldn't call that an easy trip.

Road trips don't always have to be difficult. I'll always remember one I took with my sister Barbara to attend our nephew's graduation at Marietta College. We rented a brand new Cadillac, drove to Wilson Farms Market in Lexington, Mass. and stocked a cooler with fresh fruits, veggies, cheeses and wine. We packed blankets and a road map, and not much else.

We didn't map a course, but simply pointed the car in the general direction and headed out. We must have taken a hundred little detours, stopping to see whatever our hearts desired. When conditions were good, we'd pull off the road, set the blankets out, and just lay there soaking up some sun.

It was thus that Diane and I meandered our way to the historic district in Savannah, Ga. on Wednesday. We had no plan, just a general sense of where we wanted to go, and we eventually got there. So perhaps it was fitting on Thursday morning, as we left this impromptu diversion and made our way back to Interstate 95, that I would get the call to inform me that Barbara was gone. I suppose we made quite a scene, hugging and crying in the parking lot of the Waffle House, just off exit 77 on Route 16W.

And so Barbara's difficult journey with cancer comes to an end. I will miss her so much. I can't even comprehend a world without her.