NYC -2- ATL

This morning, I hugged my son goodbye and put him on the school bus. I hugged and kissed my wife and waved as she pulled away to go to work, knowing I will not see her in person again for over a month. I am fairly certain that we haven't been apart from each other for more than about five days at a time in over twenty years. I think missing them both is going to be the hardest part of my journey.

I loaded up our 10' rental truck with my 3 bags and the bike, hugged my mom goodbye, and just like that, we hit the road. Dad and I drove almost 12 hours today, much of it through moderate to heavy rain. We joked that we would gladly trade having to ride the bike in the rain for having to drive in it. And as if the universe heard us, we were greeted with the most vivid double-rainbow I have ever seen, somewhere in Virginia.

Sometime in the evening it dawned on me how long we had been driving North, and how every mile we would be making up on our journey home. It really started to put the scale of the ride into focus for me. I am still full of nervous excitement--what have I gotten myself into!?!