We vowed to make travel days meaningful, not just endless Interstate filler between destinations.  Sometimes that's true.  An hour-long pre-to-post sunrise setting rural Kansas fog on fire around and below the rural highway.  Listening in awe to an entire Harlequin audio-romance (it turns out strong-willed independent Mae really did crave a burly-chested hero who would still chuckle respectfully about her paleontology hobby after all...), or the much classier Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver (has she ever written a book not jaw-droppingly rich?)  Meeting the same Rivian EV truck at three successive charging stations (what a different experience a biracial gay couple must have had crossing through rural Kansas I can only guess.) Farm towns and mining towns and mountain towns, alternately prospering or decaying or just stagnant. Swimming through the graduated timing and plant varieties of Autumn in progressive ecosystems, finally dwindling as we turned north. Getting lost and almost out-of-charge at midnight in backwoods Maine.  Tasting the brisk salty Atlantic winds on a two-hour ferry ride across the famous Bay of Fundy.

Other parts of the drive were just Long.  Driving under the speed limit to stretch the electric charge to the next station. Staying awake and engaged in my thoughts while Sarah works beside me.  How many miles before I reach for the next Trader Joe's peanut butter cup (dark chocolate of course)?  Our rule of driving 8 hours/500 miles max was too much to feel fully free to explore back roads and historical markers and local donut shops.  Our next leg we are dividing each long day into two, 3-5 hour jaunts, so we can sleep in, drive slow, stop often, and discover more golden nuggets we would have otherwise missed (like Fredericton NB and Kingston ON).