3731.

That's 3731 miles - from home to Texas and back again.  We were gone two full weeks and covered a lot of territory.  We visited with family and friends and we ate.  Oh how we ate.  We ate barbecue, and BlueBell, tex-mex and chicken fried steak with cream gravy.  We rode go-karts and played laser tag, we hunted for tree frogs and turtles.  We found a black widow spider and saw deer.  We ran on back roads and watched the cows look at us in disbelief.  We smelled the fresh earthy fragrance that is the country and we saw countless stars in the night sky.  We went to Schlitterbahn and screamed with delight as the cold Comal drenched us and dumped us and swirled us around.  We watched our children renew friendships with friends they may see only every couple of years - and laughed as they left us behind, content in their relationships.  We went to a street party and listened to live music; and saw high school teachers and classmates, old friends and new.  We saw miniature horses and listened as the newly weaned babies whinnied for their mothers.  We played golf and scrabble, clue, and charoodles and christened the newest olympic sport - the lunge.  We ate at the gas station and the airport, and in the car - and at old places and new.  We drove from the side of the Chesapeake Bay through the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains, the Smokies and down through the Mississippi Delta.  Across the flatlands of Houston and then into the rolling Texas Hill Country.  It was an incredible journey, but oh it is so good to be home.