A note concerning tangents: (XIX)

Current Location: Ocean Township, NJ (pop~27,000)

(N40°14.248’, W074°03.929, elev: 165’)

Distance traveled leg 19: 609.0 miles

Total Distance traveled: 7105.5 miles

Distance from our terminus in NJ: 0 miles

Expedition Outlook: Pensive

Good day to you again, treasured readers. It is with a bittersweet heart that I inform you that I am broadcasting now from the end of the tour. As of midnight, August 7^th Corona has pulled into her final port of call (as far as the expedition is concerned at any rate, Edison, Corona, and I are far from done adventuring).

While we did not finish with a whizzbang excursion, we did button up the trip with another impressive sprint. 609 miles from Columbus to Ocean, roughly a nine hour journey. That’s our third longest run. So here we go folks, short and sweet tonight, like a sugary elf:

Hannibal's final victims.

We awoke in Dayton to some very enthusiastic dogs. Once Edison finished reinventing the shower and then spending eight weeks teaching himself how to use the new design and eventually got clean, we joined his family for a pleasant breakfast. I’d like to thank Patti and Bryant for letting us crash at their place and Alexis and Neil for putting up with weird uncle Edison and his strange friend. I can’t speak for Edison, but I felt very welcome. 

It actually ranges pretty far back. 

We parted ways and the expedition set forth for Columbus, Ohio’s capitol. For important state business one might assume based on the expedition’s stature and importance, but one would be incorrect. All pleasure this trip, we checked business in MA before we left. No, folks, we went to Columbus to see a topiary sculpture. I’m sure you’re all familiar with the famous Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of Le Grande Jatte (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Georges_Seurat_-_Un_dimanche_après-midi_à_l%27Île_de_la_Grande_Jatte.jpg). Maybe not by name, but it’s a pretty popular work. Anyway, this fellow named James Mason did a pretty keen job on creating a 3-D interpretation of it with topiary shrubs at a park in Columbus, OH. It was pretty groovy. And there were some huge Koi.

We called him Casper, because he was huge, lazy, and didn't appear to be very bright. For those of you that don't know the cat, we called him Casper because he was white.

After that it was pretty much just open road briefly through West Virgina, then PA, then finally the good ‘ol Garden State, New Jersey. Edison, anything to add?

[Notes from Edison: Over. Hard to believe. We were talking about this in the car on the way home. It seemed like it passed by in such a flash, but I can barely remember the events just before we left. And despite being over in a flash, it was a significant chunk of a month. Crazy stuff, folks. Time is relative to the observer, proof of that whole special relativity thing.

I’ll save wrap-up for tomorrow, but for today I’m happy to be back where everyone knows our name, as it were. Now to gear up for Pennsic! I’m going to pass out and leave you all to the Nickness’s not-so-tender mercies.

Before leaving, have some quotes: “At every crisis in one's life, it is absolute salvation to have some sympathetic friend to whom you can think aloud without restraint or misgiving.”

Golf is a game in which one endeavors to control a ball with implements ill adapted for the purpose.”

If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience.” - Woodrow Wilson

“Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There's nothing to do but to stand there and take it.” – Lyndon B. Johnson

Ar thoufath and sayanora! Love and Peace, and sleep the sleep of the just. I assure you I will, deservedly or not. We are Sci-Fi!]

Most of the expedition crew is in a similar state. It is kind of hard to believe that it’s over, that we don’t have to be up for a 300 mile trip into the unknown first thing in the morning. We’re all a little subdued, lost in thought. Tonight’s will be the penultimate broadcast. Tomorrow we’ll have a wrap up to share with you guys. As for now, I think we could all use some sleep. Thank you, America, and good night. This is the Nickness, signing off:

Even at the end Eloise can't help herself. Our Destination is actually just to the left of the car icon, not at the end of the street where she is directing us.

Thank you for tuning in! On our text episode: It's All Over But For the Looting And Hiding Of The Bodies; No, Seriously, That's All She Wrote; Not Only Has The Fat Lady Sung, But She Has Eaten The Orchestra; Fin.