96,0000 miles

 The van cruised beautifully through 96,000 miles as part of our trip home from Boston:

This ended up being our longest single-day drive.  Allison, Madeline, Enzo, and Sara grabbed breakfast from the Residence Inn on Tudor Wharf while I retrieved the van from the adjacent parking lot.  We loaded up and started rolling around 7 am.  

I made a wrong turn and we ended up driving out to Logan Airport, doing a quick loop through the arrivals area, before finally picking up I-90 and heading west.

We motored along, enjoying the light traffic while observing how jammed the lanes to Boston were on the morning commute.  We made a quick pitstop in South Hadley to visit Jason and his kids, and to pick up a couple of items we inadvertently left behind when we stayed with them at the beginning of the journey.  Unfortunately, Pam had to leave early to be part of an interview committee, so we didn't get to see her during this stop.  The Estes are a delightful group of people to spend time with, and we could easily have spent a couple hours or days just being together.  They are also super thoughtful, and packed us a little "cestino di viaggio" for the rest of the day.

Unfortunately, I had a conference the next day and the road beckoned, so we said our farewells and hit the road:

Heading west, we uneventfully rolled through 96,000 miles west of Manchester, New York, in the Finger Lakes region.

Since this was Sara's first trip to the US, Allison and I decided to surprise everyone with a little side trip to Niagara Falls.  It only added about an hour or so to the trip, and it's definitely worth seeing.

After our break at the Falls, we pressed west.  We stopped for fuel and food, and after almost 16.5 hours, we arrived home.  Unintentionally, this ended up being our longest single day trip as a family.

The van did exactly what it was supposed to do.  It kept us entertained, safe, and comfortable regardless of weather conditions.  Over more than 2,500 miles, it returned almost 25 mpg.  It never ceases to amaze me how wonderfully competent it is.

Since the journey was over 950 miles, crossing a thousand mile milestone was bound to happen.  96K came and went uneventfully, just part of the fabric of the longest day.