28 Hour Road Trip Complete

28 hours round trip, that is. James and I were off to a Princeton Reunion of sorts last weekend, and in our desire to pay $200 in travel costs rather than $800, we opted for the 28 hour road-trip rather than the flight.

It was an AWESOME time. We left Thursday and crashed in Philadelphia with friends Ben and Karen (West Philly, no less). Saw a new part of the city. Ben gave us a tour of U Penn’s campus (where he is going to law school), and we got to tour the awesome house that our friends Mike and Sonja recently purchased. It’s an old house that they are renovating, and they’ll be doing campus ministry at U-Penn and other nearby colleges. Great to see all of them.

Then off to Princeton to hang with our seminary homies. We had a big party Saturday night, and for awhile I forgot that I had ever left the CRW community. Hopping from one apartment to the next for 3 days, it felt like old times. Really, it’s only been 2.5 months since we left, but it feels longer for some reason. And going back to Princeton made me realize that we are officially done with that phase of our life – going to grad school, living amongst lots of friends in the same neighborhood, first apartment of our marriage, etc. Driving back to Chicago I was, I must admit, a bit melancholy. Our Princeton years were challenging in some ways, but overall they were blessed by God and marked by growth in a variety of contexts.

Sadly, I have no pictures because my camera has died. But there were lots of laughs over the weekend. And I do believe that James and I have made great strides in road-trip entertainment. This time, John Adams on audio by David McCullough kept us enthralled for much of the journey. Willy Nelson, Christmas chorals, and Aaron Copeland also kept us company. We were also blessed with miles and miles of vibrant autumnal foliage – the drive was beautiful! And we saw our first bear road kill…yes, we saw a dead black bear on the side of the highway in western PA. I’d hate to be the car that ran into that bear, but it looked like the car won.

Back in Chicagoland now, and it’s starting to get colder. We turned our heat on for the first time when we woke up yesterday and our house was 55 degrees inside. Deep breath, trying to prepare myself mentally for the winter to come!