My only commitment for the day was lunch with my sister in Mt. Laurel. The drive was a little over an hour and a half. So, I had plenty of time to get there. My first thought was to return to The Great Swamp and make a second attempt on that loop trail. I hadn't counted on school buses and all those parents dropping their kids off. One block from the park, a barricade blocked the road with no indication what was up.
Following the detour brought me to a dead stop. Both red and blue flashing lights were a few blocks ahead. I was far enough behind schedule at this point and a loop trail is a commitment of time I might not have.
So, once again, I bailed on the Great Swamp. But, there was a back-up plan. Heading back south, I wound my way to the town of Manville. The Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park passes through here. The state has turned seventy miles of the canal's tow path into a state park.
A canal between the Delaware and Raritan Rivers was first proposed in 1690 by William Penn. A canal would cut one hundred miles off the journey between Philadelphia and New York. The work on the canal didn't actually begin until 1830. The canal saw usage for almost a hundred years.
The drive to Mt. Laurel was easy and I lingered over lunch with my Sis. Yeah, a pretty great way to wrap up a roadtrip.
From lunch it was a fairly easy drive south into Maryland, just don't get me started about Baltimore traffic.
The rest of the trip was with Mom. We got a few things done, tackled a few projects and spent a lot of time just talking.
I left Mom's on Saturday to face the 675 mile drive home. The mileage doesn't change, but it seems further and further every time. My goal was to get as far as possible in the daylight. Much to my surprise, I was out of DC and onto I-95 in record time. Traffic didn't slow until Fredericksburg, VA. But then again, it ALWAYS slows there. At this point I think they just hit the brakes out of habit.
The sun was still setting as I approached Atlanta...
David
11/2019
PS: Next year's travel plans are still up in the air. Being an election year, certain chunks of time are blocked off the vacation calendars. No worries, I'm sure I'll find somewhere interesting to go. I do have a long weekend in December, cobbled together with the last few PTO days. Perhaps a roadtrip through south Georgia.
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