To wrap up my extended review of the Wisconsin trip, let’s see… where was I? Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were full days (especially with Friday being the actual holiday of Shavu’ot)… by Sunday morning we were more than a little sleep-deprived, but enjoying ourselves immensely and sad that the conference was almost over. After a fantastic class by Daniel Lancaster early Sunday afternoon about the Temple as mentioned in Hebrews, we literally ran out of Beth Immanuel, shouting goodbyes over our shoulders, jumped in the car, and started our drive home.
It was Decided (note: not by me) to change our watches to Eastern Daylight Time as we drove out of Hudson… the assumption being that this would help us easily revert to our own timezone. My objections (1. just because you tell me it’s 5pm doesn’t change the fact that where I am right now it’s only 4pm; 2. my super smart phone gets the right time from satellites or something, so I can’t change it; and 3. why make time go by any faster than it has to… I was planning to use that hour!) were overruled by the majority opinion.
So we made Rockford by 10pm (but it was really only 9pm) and found our hotel (and I say “our” because we stayed there on the way up/north and chose to return to the same place on our way down/south… loyalty being our defining characteristic). Not surprisingly, the staff recognized us. I do believe it was Mr. Rogers’ southern charm that made an impression on them. 
The whirlpool was just as good as we remembered. =)
We dragged ourselves down in the morning at an ungodly hour, as my esteemed father would say, and watched Mr. Rogers cheerfully consume several bowls of cereal (drivers need to be well-nourished, you know). It took all day to get home. I think we only stopped 3 times… although it may have been 4… but in our defense it is very important to prevent blood clots by walking around at intervals during road trips. And this comes straight from Mrs. Rogers herself.
We pulled into Asheville around 9pm, said goodbye again, this time to Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, with whom we are now on quite intimate terms… and drove to Charlotte. “Meanwhile,” as they say, “back at the homestead,” the family was setting up the most elaborate cheese party I’ve ever seen. They kept texting us about their preparations… and it was everything they described. I love coming home. We were greeted with flowers, and hugs, and a really incredible spread of food, considering that it was after 11pm. And so we sat on the floor around our glass table and compared notes about the week… they told stories about amusing incidents at the Shavuot party here, and we told them stories about amusing incidents in Hudson (yes, Boaz Michael, I’m talking about you… ) and finally we went to bed…
And that is the story of our trip to Hudson.
The End.
