So I just got home from traveling out to Maryland to visit my sister and her family for the Easter weekend. We got in the truck and drove the almost exactly one thousand miles to her home in Rockville, MD. It's the second time we've done this, and we genuinely spend twice as much time traveling as we do actually spending time with family.

I genuinely love a good road trip, and the journey, which crosses through Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, is deeply satisfying. Almost exactly in the middle, of course, is Pokagon State Park in Indiana.

Searching through my blog, somehow I've never mentioned Pokagon by name here, though it has come up. We first went there almost ten years ago for our fifth wedding anniversary, and we fell in love with the place. Indiana has a historic inn system in its state parks, and Pokagon sits on a beautiful lake. I know Crysta doesn't enjoy the traveling as much as I do, so I think visiting Pokagon is the only reason she hasn't demanded we switch to flying out to Maryland when we make the trip.

I love the journey though, I really do. And I love seeing my family so much. It's easy to feel isolated from them when we're often so far away. It's been an amazing six days. Besides my sister, her husband, and my two niblings, my parents, my brother and his long time girlfriend were also there. We won't be together again until this summer, and that won't come fast enough.

That said, it feels so amazing to be sitting in my own chair in my own home again right now. One of the best parts of a long trip like this is feeling yourself relax when your travels are over. Of course, we don't get to relax for long with a con this weekend -- but I'm going to take it where I can get it.

The world never stops.

This Saturday, April 26th, I'm going to be at Concinnity in Milwaukee, WI! Stop on by and say hi if you're in town!