A Meaningful and Insightful Conclusion or I Take Back Every Bad Thing I Ever Said About New Jersey

God, I love this state. A lot of people who live here like to trash talk New Jersey, but they really don't know how lucky they are. Oh no. You cannot fully appreciate New Jersey's mountains and trees and crowded highways and cities until you have been driving through the cornfields of Illinois for four hours with nothing but sky surrounding you and no other cars to remind you to stay on the road and the threat of a tornado looming every time a drop of rain falls because there are no more mountains to keep you safe. You cannot appreciate the comfort of a familiar highway and a warm house until you have been driving through a horrific downpour at midnight in Alabama.

But the trip wasn't all terror and shitholes and mullets. In fact, Katie and I recounted all of the positives of the trip on the 15 hour drive from Alabama to home sweet home (not the entire time...possibly at some point in Virginia). We saw the Creation Museum and were treated nicely by everyone we met and we went to the City Museum of St. Louis and we saw a national landmark and we crossed the Mississippi river and we saw Nashville and we went to a great concert and we learned how awesome Tennessee is and there are a lot of other things. So up until Alabama, despite the driving and periods of insanity, it was a pretty great trip.

And when we crossed back into New Jersey after all those hours of driving, I realized I had never been happier to be there. I vowed to get one of those stupid New Jersey t-shirts they sell down the shore before the summer ends. I had a taylor ham egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast the next day. Damn it was great to finally get back.

So, for now, my thirst for complete independence has been slaked. My wanderlust has been tamed. I have newfound respect for the place I've lived all my life. I've figured out some of the logic behind highways. I know what to do if you're in a car and there's a tornado. I know how to pump my own gas. And now I believe I have some small understanding of Kerouac's "raw land that rolls in one unbelieveable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, all the people dreaming in the immensity of it". I've traveled through 5 states in one day and I've traveled through one state for what felt like years. The whole trip went from a crazy idea to a batshit crazy reality, and I wouldn't change a thing.