Summer Vacation - Day 16

[up around 0600 - finished packing the car - roused the kids from slumber - said all our goodbyes (sad) - John made us Egg McDuffs and Katie packed a great lunch for the road - we were in the car and on MA-3 by 0700 (wow!) - we took I-93 and I-95 to get home (via New York City) - I rarely use this route because of the traffic but the weather and time of day boded well - we made good time (using I-295 around Providence) and encountering very few delays (mainly just a rain squall slowed us down) all the way to the Hudson River - as we cross the George Washington Bridge, we were treated to amazing views of Manhattan (including the new World Trade Center) and the kids seemed to like that - in New Jersey, we couldn't get on I-95 (traffic) so I continued on I-80 all the way out to I-287 and then we got on I-78 - we ate our lunch around that time and even made a gas/bathroom stop in Breinigsville (PA) - we had lots of trouble with the traffic patterns in the area, the wildly fluctuating cost of fuel and the single bathroom with big line but managed to get back on the road eventually (1210) - I was actually surprised at the light traffic all the way home (I-81, PA-581, US-15, I-270, I-495) and we arrived at my apartment (via the post office) around 1600. This was far faster than I'd expected and I wasn't sure about Nicky's whereabouts (Brenna had hinted that she was at Natural Bridge - probably three hours away) - I tried to talk to her on the phone but she was too flustered to tell me how long it would be before she came home. The kids and I finished unpacking the car and then Brenna and Mollie went into "deep cover" in their room to virtually reconnect with their friends - I fed them dinner and we waited for their mother to come home.]