Like Gravity

Home pulls one in like gravity; the closer you get, the stronger it pulls.  I began feeling some slight tugs when I skirted the Ozark Mountains on Monday.  Deeper into that chain of Appalachian-like peaks and valleys was summer vacation most every year.  There were "Cuzn's by the duzn's" and good memories, including the drive back home and the anticipation of known and comfortable surroundings (at least in those years).  After stopping for a meal in Hady, Arkansas, a familiar milepost on those summer trips, the towns and memories became stronger.  By Tupelo, Mississippi, I was ready to be home.  I even had a notion to go back to my childhood home in Alabama, but I passed that up for the stronger gravitational pull of my home in Florida.  After all, I've grown very deep roots there having lived in Fort Walton Beach over a decade longer now than I lived at my childhood home.

By Mobile, Alabama today, it felt as if I were already in my neighborhood, as if I were orbiting my home star.  The final re-entry was not spectacular, just a normal landing.  After all the time here, I could do it in my sleep.

I'll take some time over the next few days to reflect on the journey across country and back, then post here again.  I launched this blog with this trip, but I have more plans for it.  This cross-country driving trip is just a small piece of the journey I and you are on in this life.  This blog is but one man's journey, and it will continue.  I will continue to post, probably 1-3 times per week with my observations, reflections, and musings as we all journey through time together.  And I invite you to comment on the posts to come, to start a dialog about experience and our relationship to all that is.

Travel Log- Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Departed from Tupelo, Missippi at 9:00 AM

Arrived in Fort Walton Beach, Florida at 5:00 PM

384 miles