Temperatures were cold, and the early morning drive was nice. I'm familiar with the roads and knew the early route. I saw some animals - likely a fox (although it could have been a small wolf) and a lynx. A doe later in the day had me slowing down as well.
The sun rose right as I got to the sleepy border crossing, and I spent a few minutes there as the guard read questions from his computer screen - yes the gall bladder is left with the rest of the guts; yes the paws are still fully attached to the hide. He had me fill out the declaration form differently than I had seen previously, but as long as I get through, I'll fill it out however they want. And I was back in the United States.
I listened to Jonathon Franzen's The Discomfort Zone, which was an interesting take on the concept of a memoir. His writing was once again pretty good, but he comes across as self-indulgent.
Then I listened to podcasts the rest of the day. I had some older Planet Money podcasts that I finally got around to listening to and I liked them, but they seemed frustratingly abbreviated.
My mind drifted home quite a bit as I thought about my prodigal dog, now returned. We will have a lot to figure out here. I'm a bit concerned she may have heartworm and/or tick-born diseases. But I guess that will only be one thing among many to deal with now. At least she didn't get hit by a car or chased into the next county by a coyote or... I really wanted to actually see her and pet her to know that she is actually home. I think I'll have to take her on a combined thank you and apology tour to all the people that were involved with her over the last 141 days.
The early part of the drive in the US was pretty with many very moosey areas. Traffic remained light with few evil motorhomes.
This changed as I got to US 2. I survived Duluth before heading south and finally getting on the interstate. The area around Madison had more traffic than I expected for a Sunday, but it was a holiday weekend. I got to Sis' house and spent some time catching up with her and Liz. I had a tex-mex tempeh bowl for dinner which was quite good - if a bit unusual - and a really nice change from the crap I had been munching on most of the day during the drive.
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Up early the next morning I started the coffee maker and sat with Sis' dogs. They were up soon enough and we finished catching up. I was out the door fairly early since I was also going to lose an hour going home.
The drive went fast enough. Traffic remained relatively light all day. Even getting around Indianapolis wasn't too bad. I had to take a snaking route once I got near home to avoid the many Indiana construction zones. It took dueling GPS units to figure out the right route.
Back at home, my bear had thawed more than I expected so I took care of it right away. I guess that is a blessing of a small bear that it went very quickly.
More importantly, I got to see my run-away dog. She didn't seem happy, but she was quite calm which is probably good enough for now. There will be plenty of time to try to get her to learn that life with people can be good.
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