Kansas

One of our things I enjoyed about Kansas was being in a city that is named after one state, but in two (Kansas City) and in another state straddling city named after both (Kanorado).

In Kansas City all we really did was change drivers. But in Kanorado, now there is a story!

We were running low on gas and saw a sign, so we got off the freeway in Kanorado -- turns out the gas station was shut down, and despite having their own community museum, there was not a soul to be seen besides one young, lone biker. Eerie! We got out of there as fast as we could!

On top of the epicness of the actual event, there is some great icing on the cake. My girlfriends from high school and I have done a gift exchange since Jr. High - and for a long time we drew names for both a "silly" gift and a "nice" (but not more than $10) gift. The Christmas after our road trip Amber drew my name. For the silly gift. I read her card before opening the present. She told me she talked to her brother (who lived in NYC) what to get someone in Boston (where I lived, and which I LOVE) - I knew this was going nowhere good ;) 

I opened the box and pulled the wrapping away from a Yankees mug - the horror! But the best part is that she had written "Made with love in Kanorado" on the bottom of the mug. Amazing.

I Got Georgia on My Mind

One summer I visited my Grandpa Todd in Tennessee. While I was there, we took a drive down to Savannah, GA to visit some of his wife Elizabeth's family. The drive down was eventful in ways I'd rather not remember, and choose not to recount.

Luckily I remember being in Savannah with fondness. I remember seeing the moss hanging from trees everywhere. I remember being shy and a bit embarrassed by these (what seemed to me at the time) overly physically affectionate distant relatives I'd never heard of, let alone met before.

We went to the beach - Tybee Island Beach. That was by far the highlight of the trip. It was a beautiful day. And I remember thinking it was absolutely incredible that I had been from coast to coast in a matter of days (my family went to the beach in California right before I flew to Tennessee). To go from having never seen the ocean, to seeing and playing in both coasts was certainly memorable.

I remember getting my feet wet, and letting the waves bury my feet in the sand as I simply stood in one place. It made me feel safe, like I couldn't be pulled out to sea.

More than anything I wanted to find a beautiful seashell to take home. The search was the fun part. Finding what looked perfect, pulling it out of the sand, and realizing it was missing the other half - that was less fun.

But, a stranger made my day. While looking for perfect seashell he found many perfect sand dollars. And he gave several to me. I had never seen anything so beautiful. I was in awe, and so grateful. I still have them, nearly 20 years later.

As a family we visited my Grandpa Todd another summer a few years later and again made the drive down to Georgia. This time was certainly bittersweet. We were planning on going down anyway, but the timing got changed because Elizabeth's relative was killed at work.

Us children were still pretty young then, so we didn't know much about the situation, intentionally (thanks parents!). What we did know was that mom lived in Georgia as a child. We drove by her old school, which she was very excited to see, and show to us. And we stayed at her childhood friend Chrissy's house. It was so cool. They had a golf cart (that they let us drive!) and a pond that had turtles (and we imagined much more - think alligators!) and acres of land that we could explore. Plus my dad and I played a game of Skip-bo that ended up lasting for HOURS.

It's funny the things that stay with you :)

Nebraska

There are two vignettes for this state, both took place on cross country drives.

Driving cross country from Boston to Utah with one of my childhood friends, Amber, was quite a journey. Amber did most of the driving, but one day I took over and drove for hours across the planes of Kansas and Nebraska while she slept.

Miles and miles of vegetation sliding by hour after hour. Some may not enjoy that. I thought it was incredible. It amazes me what variety there is in this world - of things that grow, of people who do such different things, cities vs farms...

On top of my personal interest and interaction, I also couldn't help but think of My Antonia by Willa Cather. I've read that book a number of times, and even wrote a paper about nature being treated as a character in the book - so many great personifications used! There is a passage that came back to me during the trip - about sunflowers. I drove by field after field of them (that's right, not just corn!) and thought about the story of Mormon Pioneers planting sunflowers along the trail as a way to both mark the trail West and provide food for those that followed them. Genius.

The other vignette is from another cross country drive, this one with my family. 

Family road trips are awesome. On this one we decided to stop and visit some family friends who had moved to Nebraska. It was fun to see them, and experience a little bit of life in a place so different than what I was familiar with.

We went to Council Bluffs. I remember feeling peaceful staring out across the windswept prairie. And reviving some of my "Laura Engles Wilder" dreams of living on the land. I remember being fascinated by the history and stories of those who settled that land.

I'm not sure I am actually cut out for a "live off the land" kind of life, but I sure enjoy dreaming about it!