Reminisce of a College Road Trip Part 2

On August 28, 2009, my husband, our daughter, and I began our long journey to New York City. My husband and I did not know what to anticipate from a road trip of this magnitude. We only prayed that we would reach our destination safely and on time for our daughter to check into her dormitory.

Before we left home that morning my friend Grace, my college friend from years ago, came to our house to wish us a safe trip. And if you had known Grace you would know that if she comes to visit you she is coming with a gift. So that morning Grace brought us food for our trip and money to help with buying gas for the journey. We thanked her for her generosity and we were on our way.

During the day my husband drove and I drove during the night-time. During the night many of the areas on the freeway were very dark and I was only able to see by the help of the many semi-trucks on the road.

During the day we made several stops, and during these stops we rested or just walked around. We had a great time with our daughter who loved every minute of the trip. There were times when we spoke a lot and other times we were silent and enjoyed being in the company of each other. There were other times when we bought food and ate and we even shopped for clothes.

During the night we stopped and slept over, and we were on our way by 6:00 AM the next morning. My husband was driving and visibility was poor in the early morning so he drove way slower than the speed limit so that we could be safe during this trip of a life-time.

We had no idea that driving through Pennsylvania would take us so many hours. At one time we thought we were lost and we stopped at a gas station to find out where we were and we were told by the gas station attendant that we were heading in the right direction and that we would reach New Jersey in the next twenty minutes; however, this statement was not completely true. Yes, we were going the right direction but New Jersey was about another two hours away.

On our college road trip we had many delays due to miles of road constructions and hours of traffic congestion.We finally reached New York City seven hours later than the estimated time that we thought we would reach. Although my daughter checked in far later than her scheduled time she had no problem checking in and no question was asked about her lateness.

We helped our daughter moved in and we ended up buying a few more items for her room in New York City. The following day we also help her to settle into her room and the next morning we said our goodbyes and left our daughter in New York and made our long journey back home. The journey back home was a sad one. Many teardrops were shed. We missed our daughter immensely and for the first time we had to face the reality of being empty nesters. We knew we had raised her for that moment in her life when she goes off to college but it sure hurts to leave your child in a strange, huge city.

Driving to New York City is the biggest driving adventure my husband and I have ever done and I do not believe there will be a repeat of driving that distance again. However, that journey had strengthened our faith in God because if we did not go on that journey we would not have known that we could have made a journey like that. This journey also reminded us of the scripture verse that states,"Faith without works is dead." by starting out on the journey with God's help we were able to complete the journey safely. We are also reminded that prayer works because our daughter prayed for a college road-trip with her parents and due to a series of events she was able to have the trip that she prayed for. I am truly thankful that we were given the opportunity to spend those wonderful hours with our daughter because we may never be given that opportunity again to have such a long trip together because she may start her own family after graduating from college. We will always treasure the time spent with our lovely daughter and although at first I did not think a college road trip would be a good idea, I would not trade one hour of that trip with our daughter for all the money in the world.