Closing the book on Road Trip 2017

-- Speed limits in the Midwest were 70 to 80 mph, but drivers seemed to obey them more closely than we do in Upstate New York. In northern Florida, however, the posted speed was treated as a mere suggestion.

-- I still have not learned the lesson that eating a chocolate bar in the car on a warm day will result in chocolate bar all over your clothes.

-- I wrote in the preview that I was bringing along bottles of Just Water, but I never got around to telling you what that was about. They went to Tommy Deas, the sports editor of the Tuscaloosa News. It was the only gift I could think of that said "Glens Falls."

-- I good deal of this trip took place outside of the Interstate system, and I discovered a major drawback to that -- no rest areas. So you pick your gas stations carefully. If they don't have decent restrooms, you buy your gas someplace else.

-- U.S. Route 2 in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is totally flat for quite a long time. I got a chuckle when a "Hill" warning sign appeared and what followed was just a little dip in the road.

-- A trip like this sometimes catches the attention of people outside the usual scope of my usual followers. I'm happy to now have American Waterways following me on Twitter.

-- It matters only to me, but having now been through Mississippi, I have driven in all 48 of the contiguous United States.

-- I was only on the Skyway for about 15 minutes in Jacksonville, but I gave two different people directions on how to use the system. I think they were from Jacksonville, too. Weird.

-- On the way past Philadelphia on the New Jersey Turnpike I had The Boss in my head. How can you not think of Streets of Philadelphia at a time like that?

-- One of the biggest surprises was the price of gas in Key Largo, Florida. Gas is usually more expensive in tourist areas, but it was cheaper there than on the mainland.

-- As you move around America, the brand of gas station keeps changing. In Oklahoma, you go to the QT. In the Deep South, it's the DoubleQuick. On the East Coast, you go to Love's.

-- The most annoying new toll practice is toll-by-plate. If you don't have the electronic gizmo (like EZ Pass), it takes a picture of your plate and you get a bill in the mail. Massachusetts is now all-electronic tools, and quite expensive for those of us getting the bill.

-- When I pulled into Boston on Thursday, two weeks into the trip, all I could think was: It's a helluva strange way to get from Glens Falls to Boston.

-- The trip cost me a few bucks and the driving could get tiring after a while, but I saw a lot of America and met a lot of people. It was worth it. Thanks for coming along for the ride.