So this 10-day road trip experiment is over and while your reviews have been good, I am really, REALLY glad it is over.

I feel as if I have been, as Johnny Cash once said, everywhere. While I’ve taken long trips for work before, with those I usually would be somewhere for at least a long weekend. On this trip the only time I slept in the same bed more than a night was when my planned feature story on a soccer family in Atlanta fell through due to changes in their practice schedule. Still, I drove 2,100 miles in 9 days and boy is my foot tired.

(Some of the miles were more interesting than others)

While returning to the family is the best part of the trip, it is also great to see so many soccer programs, families, players, coaches, fans, whatever, all out there enjoying their experiences with the beautiful game. It takes time, but the soccer culture is maturing, taking root and this is that almost-intangible ingredient that is really needed for us to get from here to there.

I’ve seen a college program that is more professional than some of the teams in MLS, budding youth teams who are developing players the right way, hotly-contested matches in our Development Academy, an agony of defeat scenario on the women’s college side mixed with both thrill of victory for the winners and yet a clear case of pride and excellence for the top women’s program of all time. I’ve seen the homes of dedicated soccer families in areas where the game has long been a fixture and some where it’s still relatively new. I’ve seen pickup games, expats watching on satellite, parents spending their Saturday watching in person and communities coming to support the game on a weeknight.

All that and I got to eat like a pig a few times too.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the articles and the videos. There’s even a few of those up on the site today that are new, because I saw so much I couldn’t write about it all during the allotted time. So I hope you found something in there you enjoyed reading or watching.

Now I’m back home and back to trying to share with you everything that’s going on in our soccer nation. Thanks for reading.

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