We love that dirty water

4,150 miles. That's what the trip odometer reads on our trusty Corolla, now parked outside my parents' house in a suburb of Boston. Our trip -- relocating from the San Joaquin Valley in sunny California to the greater Boston area -- is at an end.

We started our last day by leaving Philadelphia around 10 AM and stopping in New Haven for lunch around 2 PM. D and I met at Yale back in 1995, when we were both undergraduates, and we haven't been on campus since a reunion for D's class in 2003. In fact, it's the longest either of us have been away from Yale since we first enrolled as freshman. There were a few surprises waiting for us on campus. Yale continues be active in renovating several parts of campus, and several additions surprised us, like the new mini-gothic structure used as an entrance for Cross Campus Library (CCL). Wait, as I look for info on this renovation, I see that it's now called the Bass Library. (I used to half-joke that the library was named for Wilbur Lucius Cross. Well, that unfunny joke is now even less funny).

We had lunch at "Wall St. Pizza", formerly Naples. The name has changed, the walls have been painted bright colors, but the pizza remains the same (a good thing). Our booth featured an (original?) map of the Yale campus c. 1933 that was interesting to examine and discuss while we ate our "awesome" pizza, in D's words. [D's note: Let me reiterate... AWESOME pizza, same as ever.]

After spending some time walking around campus -- and marveling over how schlubby Yale students look when compared to the Vanderbilt students we had seen in Nashville a few days ago -- D and I got back in the car and drove the final stretch to Boston, just in time to hit some tolerable rush-hour traffic.

Now we're at my parents' house for a few weeks (at least) while they continue to process of moving out of this house (their residence since 1966) and into their new home across town, and D and I look for a house of our own.

It's safe to say that both D and I consider our cross-country trip a big success. We met lots of people, saw wonders natural & historical, ate some great meals, and had some good conversations. We've already started planning out our next (slightly smaller!) trip when the opportunity presents itself, covering western Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Virginia.

We'll keep this blog going, though probably not with daily entries. Still, stay tuned....