Prologue

While our journey officially begins on Wednesday in Delaware, for me, at least, the first leg of the journey began just outside of Boston. I left bright and early Saturday morning from my home in Cambridge to head for a big family reunion picnic in Delaware, and have been staying at my parents' house until scooting over to Beth's for the big breakfast and send off in a few days.

So, to properly catalog, here is the scene as I slipped behind the wheel at mile 0:

Mile Zero

It was a gorgeous June morning, so I put the top down and popped in the first of a few roadtrip mix CDs that some pretty awesome people have made for the journey. The Cars "Let's Go" - sounds just about right! And was very necessary to get my juices moving at 7 am on a Saturday (after a late night of packing and re-packing, it was mighty hard to say goodbye to my bed for the next 5-6 weeks!).

I'm very used to the Boston - Cherry Hill route and all went smoothly until, surprise, I hit New York. First, major traffic due to the U.S. Open Golf tournament in Westchester County, and then the normal snarl leading into the George Washington Bridge. Now, the goal is to minimize highway/interstate driving as much as possible, although given my extensive familiarity with the northeast as well as the utilitarian nature of this leg of the journey, I gave this a pass. But, rather than sit in traffic on an on-ramp for the next 45 minutes, I decided to take a 'short cut' through Manhattan (an oxymoron, perhaps, but more interesting...). So, I cruised 5th Avenue from Harlem down to the Lincoln Tunnel at Mid-town:

View down 5th Avenue to Empire State Building

Woman outside Louis Vuitton on 5th Avenue

The next Snafu, natch, was in Jersey. Very slow going, frequently not moving at all, and running later and later for this family picnic. Highway driving can make one grouchy, and by hour 6 in the car... I was concerned that this could be the beginning of a very long trip. But, then again, the Jersey Turnpike is hardly the most inspiring of roads...

"Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike..."

My faith in the journey was renewed later that day, however. After a lovely afternoon in Wilmington, I spun by Beth's house to pick up her CDs to burn into the ipod and decided to keep driving out the winding back roads of the Brandywine Valley and cut up through Chester County to get back to Cherry Hill. It was a beautiful summer night – crickets were creaking, fireflies blinking, and the sky was that dusky purple-blue that is such a perfect backdrop for a silhouette. I was following another car and as we drove down the narrow shaded lanes, our headlights moving on the dense leaves overhead made it appear as if we were underwater. The perfect song was playing... a light guitar and the voice singing “there were mermaids, weren’t there, sweet silver mermaids/they were young, they were fair, they brushed their blond and dusky hair”. It was magical, and so in the moment, amazed at the beauty that can be weaved from nature, machines, and music.

I can't wait to get started!