US Highway 50 -- "End-to-End" Officially Complete!

The last drive of my US Highway 50 "End-to-End" road trip began with a stint across the rolling hills of Virginia, and through a few quaint, really old villages. Despite the heavy overcast, it was lovely.

Because US 50 passes right through the heart of downtown Washington, DC -- right along Constitution Avenue and everything! -- I decided to leave my camper rig back in Winchester and make the drive in Darth unencumbered.

I am very glad I made that call, because I can't imagine having to drag my rig through the DC traffic!

With that mess behind me, I entered Maryland where the landscape really opened up and offered me an easy hour or so drive to the coast.

I arrived in Ocean City and have checked into a little beachfront Holiday Inn -- my other home! -- for the night. Before doing so, I stopped to find the sign I've been waiting to see since I saw it's reciprocal 3,073 miles ago in Sacramento!

With that, my US Highway 50 "End-to-End" road trip is officially complete! It's been a fantastic drive: Over the California mountains, across the desert on the Loneliest Road, over the Rockies, progressively across prairies, grasslands, farmlands, woodlands and, finally, over the Appalachians and on to the Atlantic Coast.

I've made the trip a lot faster than I originally planned -- for reasons that I promise to explain very soon! -- but that didn't really detract from my enjoyment of it. There's something fantastic about rolling so far across such vastly different regions that's hard to describe. Every time I do it, I am strongly reminded that America is quite probably the most varied country in the world, and that regional differences in the republic should be protected from the kind of "one size fits all" lawmaking that seems to be the vogue. Drive coast to coast sometime and see if you get what I mean.

I'm going to return to Winchester tomorrow and collect my rig, then head up to Pennsylvania to visit with family and friends for a couple of weeks. After that, I've got something pretty amazing lined up... Stay tuned!

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