As quickly as it came, my 1,288 mile trek across the Northeastern United States has come to an end and I am now in Deerfield Beach, Florida – or should I say F-LONG-ida – because after driving through The Sunshine State today, I can definitely say that this is probably the longest state in the nation.

As I crossed the border into Florida at noon today, I stopped at the Welcome Center to get a map so I was sure as to where I was going. The beginning of my trip was easy – straight through the state via I-95. But now that I had a destination, I wanted to be sure that I was going the right way. I found out, thanks to both the map and the tourist agent at the Welcome Center, that Deerfield Beach was Exit 38. Considering that I was at Exit 129 – I figured that would be a hop, skip and jump from where I was, because every other state numbers their exits based on the mile they are at – every state that is, except Florida. It turns out that instead of the expected 91 mile difference between Exits 129 and 38 – they were 336 miles apart – this might be a good example of why Florida’s votes didn’t match up in this year’s election.

While every other state seemed like a quick drive – it took me six hours to drive through Florida – and those six hours seemed like six weeks. The reason for this is that while the other states had an exit every few miles – there were times I drove for an hour without a single exit. Don’t get me wrong, the scenery was beautiful – but after an hour of the same trees passing me by over and over again – I started to think I was going in circles.

When I finally arrived at the tail end of my journey through the tail end of the Northeast – the wide open spaces and free and easy driving turned into rush hour traffic and lane closures due to construction. After spending an hour sitting in unmoving and unforgiving traffic – I started to think I was back in New York.

It was when I pulled into the parking spot in front of Sandy’s parents building that I came to the sad realization that my vacation and my journey was over. The freedom, independence and serenity of driving cross country came to a stop when the car came to a stop for the final time. The good news is that I still have one more day in Florida and three more days back home before I go back to work – but the bad news is that such a long trip seemed to end in such a short time.

I enjoyed my trip and really enjoyed the places I saw and the people I met. I thank God that I had a safe trip free of incident, accident – and law enforcement. I will always remember the fun I had and I hope that someday, I will get the opportunity to do this again – but this time – I’m going to California.