Friday, I picked my youngest son up from a class he is taking this summer, and we took advantage of break in his schedule to make a trip to the place my paternal grandmother and grandfather called home: Edwardsville, Illinois.

When I met him at the curb, the car was packed, and we were ready for adventure. We started by heading east from Raleigh toward Winston-Salem, then we headed north.

Before too long we were greeted by this sign as we crossed the North Carolina border:

In short order we had traveled through Virginia and found ourselves crossing over into West Virginia:

and we continued on our way until we reached the capitol, Charleston, where we spent the night.

The next morning, as we packed up the car, one of the denizens of Charleston, West Virginia, expressed an interest in my crochet:

After the cat was done looking over my yarn and continued on it’s way, we finished packing up and returned to the open road.

Fifty-six miles later we crossed over into Kentucky:

With three state borders now in the rearview mirror, we wended our way through the bluegrass state, and soon enough we saw this sign:

One state away from our final destination, we continued on and were greeted by this sign:

There were just another two-and-half hours between us and our destination, so we pressed on, and by late mid-afternoon, we had reached Edwardsville. We stopped at my favorite coffee shop and then went to my cousin’s house.

After the long drive, I was glad to be able to sit, drink my coffee, and (once we had unpacked) do a little crochet.

Since our arrival and sunset tonight, I finished one more pentagon (I need eight more):

and all twenty of the African flower hexagons:

There are still seams to be joined, ends to be woven in and trimmed, and a soccer ball to be stuffed, but I will move forward as I always do, one stitch at a time.