What have I learned? Major takeaways?

Nashville was the most fun city and I will go back there.

Back roads are way more interesting than the highway.

I’ve all but stopped using GPS and reverted to my 10 year old atlas. Not out of nostalgia but if you want to travel back roads and know where you are in relation to anything, it’s the only way. And the brain stays engaged.

Whether North or South, everyone out of the Northeast has a twang.

I miss my family and friends more than I thought.

Camping is much more work than I thought, especially breaking down equipment and cleaning the site in bad whether. But camping is my new favorite thing.

I have become much more efficient in what I use and how I keep organized.

I can stare at a campfire for hours.

Most areas I have visited resemble upstate New York.

Out of New York, people talk to you and are not suspicious when you talk to them for no reason.

I’ve finally slowed down and go with the flow. Even not working I had imposed deadlines and goals for myself – not the point of this trip.

There are a lot of Christian radio stations but none for Jews or Muslims (unless that’s NPR?)

I catch myself all the time driving with a smile on my face so I must be enjoying this.

I’ve become so accustomed to being on the road that this seems like my normal life and I fully expect to go on this way forever. I won’t. I can’t.

Everyone has an opinion on what I should do, where I should go, what to write and how to promote myself. And I do take a lot of that advice and I believe it has helped. Old Jeff would have not listened.

However, this is not an Eat, Pray, Love journey of self discovery. My mission remains the same: Drive and see what happens.