Day 14- home

After breakfast at the Hampton Inn in Philadelphia Rodney and I walked over to the Reading Terminal Station. The place was much less crowded customer-wise but the vendors were bustling about setting out their foodstuffs and doing prep work. We picked up a few items to bring home.

We left for home around 11:30. The TomTom took us off the interstate (though we never lost faith) and through a few very pretty communities in the Princeton, N.J. area, before ushering us back on to the interstate. We listened to a very enjoyable Hercule Poirot book on tape narrated by the actors David Suchet and the guy who played his sidekick Hastings in the PBS series. The trip was uneventful except for our reminiscing about the last 14 days.



We were home before 6p.m. Tiber the dog was ecstatic to see us, (as we were to see him) and the cats were, well, cat-like in their greeting. Deb, our house sitter, had done a wonderful job keeping them happy and well fed while we were away.



I guess we'd like to end this blog with a few comments and thoughts:
A comment: There are way, way too many Starbucks restaurants! We saw dozens of them, several in each city we were in as well as in many of the service areas. Even little Niagara Falls had four Starbucks that we saw and probably many that we did not see! I have to wonder if, like the Cylons on Battlestar Galactica, THEY HAVE A PLAN.



A few factoids:
The trip was 2,215 miles and our gas mileage was 28.7 mpg by the way! Go CRV!!
Gas prices ranged from $3.83 to $4.39/gal
We paid $70 in tolls
We stayed in nine different hotels in eight cities
We walked 4-6 miles per day (thank you trusty pedometer) except for long travel days
We visited seven different major league baseball parks and exceeded our goal by visiting not one, but two, museums if you include the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!! (see blog title)
We saw 15 home runs including one walk off.

The blog was truly a group effort. Allison provided direction and advice from afar. She is a blogger extraordinaire (see her latest, http://allisoninrealworld.blogspot.com/). Brian was the blog techno whiz with pictures both from the cameras and from those he found on-line (e.g. some of the city skylines and Roy Orbison Y). He also was the grammar and spell check expert. Rodney helped with picture choosing and transfer as well as adding some of the text. Holly did the lion's share of the text with the verbal help of the men, some solicited and some not.

Many thanks for all the comments and e-mails. We enjoyed them greatly.

For those of you who have become addicted to our blog......fear not. We have become addicted to blogging.

Rodney will be doing a blog on how to finance your own ballpark tour.....Go Dow!
Holly will be blogging on dining on your ballpark tour...........Go Cholesterol!
and Brian will be blogging on how to survive 14 days with the parents....Go IPod!