Farewell, Maine. Hello, Cville.

I took a few shots of the downstairs after we cleaned up.

It was a good stay, but the stay was over.

Carrie, Shane, and I were ready to go by 8 AM. Grandpa and Grandma didn't wake up until 8 AM. We were on slightly different schedules.

We all left at the same time. And we all headed the same way.

Right to a railroad.

When Grandpa helps plan a trip, the trip includes trains.

Grandpa is a transportation history buff.

He, also, worried about Shane walking on the points near the switch.  I can see where Carrie gets it from!

Nana would have said, "If you make us go to the hospital, I'll kill you," or something of that nature. Possibly, "Don't come crying to me if you do something stupid!"

So I guess Shane will be able to see where I got it from when he's older!

Seriously, though. Shane's very agile and typically afraid of pain. He's super impulsive (which bears watching), but if he thinks he'll get hurt doing something he normally keeps himself in check.

Such as here. When Shane wanted to walk on here, I noticed there were gaps in the middle. I told him to watch the middle and to fall outside or to make to straddle the rails if he had to go inside. Then I stood back and crossed my fingers.

No injuries to report. I think Shane impressed Grandpa with his balance.

The museum was a volunteer run club. That meant there were less guide ropes. We ducked into a warehouse. No one else was there and Shane was up into a car almost before I got in the door with my camera.

Look! A boxcar from the Boxcar Children!

Hands on is in Shane's lane.

We left the warehouse at a run as the rain started to come in. It's rained and flooded VA, but we've managed to avoid almost all of it by being on the road. This was the first time it rained on us in Maine.

We followed Grandma and Grandpa out to a Dunkin Donuts where we said our goodbyes. The original plan had been to drive to Massachusetts and stay the night. The plan changed.

Grandma and Grandpa wanted to meander home over four days. We wanted to make it home in two. They generously used some of their points and got us a reservation in CT.

We hit some traffic and rain on the way out, but we've been fortunate. The traffic on the other side of the road has been horrific by comparison.

Also, we saw a giant lobster.

"Look, Shane! A real, giant lobster!" Carrie said.

"Nuh uh! Look at it's face! There's no pee holes!" Shane replied.

"That's going in the blog!" Carrie said in between laughing!

We took a bathroom break at a Chic Fil A in MA. It was much the same as any other, but there were no kids in the play area! Shane was bummed. He called me in to show me how slick the slide was.

We made it to Danbury, CT in time for dinner. Nerves were frazzled after a long road trip and waiting for a table at a Chilly's. We ended up in a Mexican restaurant called Pancho's Tacos.

Proportions were generous! Carrie's sandwich was too spicy for her, so we swapped plates.

We stopped by a game store and an ice cream store on the way home (you can guess which parent requested each, I'm sure).

I did not expect to see a model set for the Nativity alongside all the other Reaper Minatures Bones line of products.

There was a 25% off storewide sale, so I picked up an Exit game to try. It was the only one they had.

We headed out early the next morning. I didn't like missing church, but it wouldn't have been wise to wait for traffic in NYC to pick up.

That's right, NYC. Google maps took us through the outer reaches this time.

We went over the George Washington Bridge to cross the Hudson this time.

And again, traffic was mostly okay going our way. There were a line of squad cars and traffic was shut off going the other!

The tolls on the NY bridges have been "pay by mail," so that will show up at some point. Really, we need to get an EasyPass if we do this again.

We stopped in NJ to visit Bill and Jill!

They're expecting their son to be born any day now! He was due last Saturday. I'd wanted to stop and visit then, but Carrie and I worked out it we could stay longer on the return trip (if Bill and Jill didn't have to rush to the hospital).

Shane was overcharged. I took the birthing ball away from him when I deflected it from the TV. Then he crawled around on the table a little while before trying to take on Bill.

Bill was the oldest in his family, so he knows how to mess with wee ones.

It's a good skill set with one of his own coming. Jill said that Bill was throwing little kids all over the local pool the other day. The kids kept running up to him, so he'd send them flying!

An hour passed and it felt like less than 30 minutes to me. It had been too long in between visits. The last time we were in NJ was for Bill and Jill's wedding. We'd never seen their new house (or any of the previous places they lived).

Bill let Shane play on Octopath Traveler his Switch some.

We all went to Wegmans for lunch before hopping back on the road. Carrie still has a key to the corvette Bill bought from Dan. She wanted to know who Bill sold it to for no particular reason....

She was bummed to find out the vette was off in Oklahoma somewhere now. It will always be the one that got away from her....

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. There was traffic and tolls. Shane played Pokemon and sometimes we all listened to The Fellowship of the Rings. I was thrilled about the latter!

We got home around 6:30 PM. Carrie found TWENTY-EIGHT EGGS in the coop! The ladies had laid maybe four eggs the whole week prior! Maybe they were popping them out as emergency rations in case we didn't come back?

The animals I had been most worried about were the cats. We didn't find any accidents and they were both healthy when we found them. They clearly missed us. Bucket didn't want to leave Carrie alone!

Our last big trip for the summer was done! We stretched our horizons. Shane has been through 16 states now by my count. We were only in NH for a stretch of interstate, but we had windows. By that standard, my own count is around 31. Carrie came up with 32, but with noticeable differences from mine.