Saturday 10/15/2016
Decatur IN to Wilkes-Barre PA 
(~  529 miles)

Things looked only slightly less blurry in real life…
We were up early again for another day of making long flat miles. We’d be hitting the interstates later today for the remainder of the journey. On the road around 0700 in the dark, we finished off the last few miles of Indiana on US-224 to US-30 at Pleasant Township OH.

We were treated to a beautiful sunrise while rolling across the Ohio farmland.

Signage pointing us homeward.

US-30 is a four lane divided highway which took us halfway across the state until we finally picked up I-71 near Mansfield OH. On familiar highway now, we simply made time, taking I-76 to Akron and I-80 across a fall-touched Pennsylvania to I-81 and our hotel for the night in Wilkes-Barre. We arrived mid-afternoon, which was a nice change that gave us some time to wind down a bit and enjoy our pizza from The Grotto, which I’d gotten on a previous stay in the area.

Our route from Decatur to Wilkes-Barre.

Sunday 10/16/2016
Wilkes-Barre PA to Southeast MA 
(~  314 miles)

Almost smelling home now, only 300 miles away, and hoping to get home in time for the Pats game, we got another early start around 0700 on Sunday morning. The skies were mostly cloudy, but no rain and there was visible clearing to the east…light at the end of the tunnel.

As the highway wound over varying elevations in PA, the clouds came down to meet us at a few points, turning the rising sun into a pinhole of light.

Somewhere in New York, we caught a glimpse of another hot air balloon against now-clear skies, reminding us of the scene back in Sedona just a few days ago. It seemed much longer after the hours and miles and everything we’ve seen since.

Crossing the Hudson always feels like a big deal to me on my trips, telling me I’m “checking in” or “”checking out” of New England. The sign for entering Connecticut made our re-entrance official.

Char was happy to see our first sign for Boston.

We’d agreed to cut the corner through northeast CT, rather than deal with Mass Pike traffic on a Sunday. We left I-84 onto CT-197 in Union and enjoyed the fall colors on familiar roads through Dudley and Webster MA over to MA-146. It was nice to be home again.

Our return journey from Sedona – 2729 miles over six days.