Day 17 – The End

The morning came way too early and I hopped out of bed and went to get the car from the parking garage. They weren’t too impressed that I didn’t call ahead the night before to let them know that I was coming in around 5:30 to pick up the car, but no worries, I go there, paid the bill and picked up the car.

We packed up the car and hit the road. It definitely wasn’t hard to get out of the city into New Jersey. After asking Vero to navigate, I let Vero sleep for awhile as I knew I would want to catch some shut-eye eventually. We stopped for breakfast at one point and kept driving.

Along the way I decided that I would purchase the Takamine guitar in Syracuse, NY. I had checked if there was a Guitar Center in Syracuse and sure enough there was. So when I got closer to Syracuse, I pulled off to the side of the road, broke out the trusty laptop and found directions to Guitar Center. Vero was clearly excited that I was going to bite the bullet. Hey, I had to! I wanted my grandmother’s gift money to go towards something special…not just paying down debt.

I walked in there like I owned the place, picked up the guitar, went to town playing and surprised the gentleman working there by saying “Yes, I’m interested in buying this guitar today.” when he asked if I needed any help. 😉

In the end, I got an excellent deal on the guitar and case after indicating the price Chazz was going to give me down in Boston. We had to search for an appropriate case as the guitar is a jumbo body (something I’ve fell in love with ever since the purchase of my Epiphone). I don’t really care for the case personally, but it’s what’s inside that counts!

We headed for the border, had no problems crossing it (read: no one confiscated any meat products!) and headed towards the nearest truck stop for a bite to eat. Along the way we passed 1000 Islands which looked amazing and I mentally noted that we should go visit it sometime.

We hit familiar highways along the 401 and I let Vero drive the rest of the way and I awoke when we hit Ottawa. I dropped Vero off, headed home, and unpacked the car and just sat there regaling in my memories of the past 17 days.

There you have it. Nearly three weeks on the road. One of the better trips I’ve been on. I enjoyed camping along the way as it was cheap and I am cheap. Frugal may be the better term.

I am very glad that traveling with Vero turned out well. I really did wonder if I would get on her nerves along the trip but we seem to complement each other well on travels.

I changed a lot of my ways of traveling and just had various destinations in mind with a very relaxed time line to follow. I found I actually enjoyed it more and plan to do more trips like it. You have a little more freedom when you can just head somewhere and say “You know what? I’m having a great time here, let’s just stay!”

New York City was definitely an amazing opportunity for the both of us and we enjoyed it immensely. I would return again just to explore the city. I enjoy exploring more than hitting up tourist attractions at this point in my life…but I try and have a balance as I’m sure the tourist attractions became attractions for a reason.

That being said, I’m writing this entry a month after we got back and it seems like so long ago. However, the next year will be action packed as we already have a trip to the Dominican Republic, British Columbia, and potentially Gaspe planned. Yikes! Start saving that money!