August 1 Addendum- The Saga of the Traveling Journal

Ever heard of those stories where people have their garden gnomes stolen and then receive pictures of their lawn ornament on vacation around the world? Well, I think my trip journal had the same idea. In this case, however, several police departments and mail services teamed together to reunite me with my journal. After spending time in four different states without me, my journal and I were finally reunited yesterday.

When I left on this grand summer adventure, I decided to use a blue spiral notebook to log my thoughts for the day as well as to keep track of ride ideas, host contact information, and things I wanted to see or do. I know that in this digital age many people use their phones for such tasks. However. I am old fashioned in that I like to be able to write out a list, cross items off, draw arrows from one item to the next, staples ferry passes to pages, etc. I think of this journal as my brain on paper.

Unfortunately, as I was getting off the ferry in Lewes, Delaware, I inadvertently left my journal on the ferry. I was several miles away getting gas when I realized what happened. By the time I turned around and went back to the ferry terminal, my journal was on the ferry headed back to New Jersey without me. The officials at the terminal contacted the ferry boat directly and asked for the journal to be sent back to me in Delaware on the next morning’s ferry.

If the journal had made the first ferry of the following day the story would have ended there as I would have collected the journal and gone on with my trip. However, the journal did not make that ferry. The good news is that my host for the night just happened to be John Peterson, a Delaware State Fire Police Officer and someone with connections at both the New Jersey and Delaware ferry terminal police departments. He offered to collect the journal when it arrived on a later ferry and overnight the journal to me so I could continue on my way.

The saga continues because for some inexplicable reason, Fed Ex had the package in a distribution center just 20 minutes away from where I was staying in Maryland but failed to deliver the package on its scheduled delivery date or even the next day while I was still in Maryland. The journal arrived at my friend Tabitha’s house when I was long gone. She kindly Priority Mailed the journal to me at the Gainesville Harley Davidson as we knew that I would be there on July 31. When I arrived at the dealership yesterday, I was delighted to receive my journal with a sweet note from one of the many people involved in returning it to me: “Keep riding. Be safe. I’m glad you got your book back. Dispatcher Bove, Delaware River Bay Authority.”