I want to start this by saying a HUGE Thank You to my aunt and uncle in Illinois for opening up their home to me and my cats last night, especially since my uncle is allergic to cats and had to spend the night in their basement while my cats took over the main floor. I slept great and woke up completely free of the zombie like trance I'd been in last night. Synge and Faelina had both been nervous when we first got there, but by morning I could tell they both were infinitely less stressed than they had been our first night on the road. In fact, Faelina apparently liked it so much that she decided that we weren't going to leave and climbed inside the batting on the bottom of my mattress and wound herself through the mattress springs. In the end, the only way to extract her was by upending the whole mattress and ripping the batting even more so that I could grab her. This little stunt of hers made it so that I hit the road a little later than I would have liked (well that and my dithering over which hotel to make a reservation at), but finally I had both cats and all of our things in the car. I hugged my aunt and uncle goodbye and set off - with a quick side stop to Starbucks for a Venti 5 shot Americano!
The first few hours I was still in Illinois before crossing the state line into Iowa. As far as I can recall, the last time I'd been in Iowa was on a family road trip when I was eight years old, and I was excited to see it again.Farmland pretty much accompanied me throughout the entirety of the state, mostly crop farms but I did see the occasional herds of black cows too. The sky was clear the whole day and the sun almost relentlessly bright which meant my sunglasses were glued to my face whenever I was on the road. The tint of my glasses made the crops appear as though someone had decided to grow fields of tall bronze shimmering in the sunlight; it was quite lovely. Despite that though, the open flatness of the land combined with scarcity of trees in the eastern part of the state unnerved me. I felt exposed, almost unsafe as result. I managed to distract myself from this by singing along to Brantley Gilbert songs (I just love his voice!) or listening to my most favorite story: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (a gift from from my aunt and uncle!). The sun also heated up the interior of my car quite a bit, making it hot enough to make even Faelina crawl out of her nest of blankets. I tried using the power of positive thinking to make my AC suddenly start working again and not just blow warm air out of the vents; unfortunately I was less than successful.
As late afternoon came around I felt myself growing tired and my left eye started twitching. I took that as a sign that I needed more caffeine but wasn't sure how to go about getting some since I was in an area completely unknown to me. Thankfully just about that time I-80 took me through Des Moines. As I approached one of the many exits for the city a sign listed a mall as one of the attractions for that exit and I though to myself "Where there's a mall there will be Starbucks" and drove down that ramp hoping I was right. I am happy to report that my logic did not fail me and 10 minutes later with coffee in hand I was back on the highway.
After Des Moines the terrain grew a little hillier and more trees surrounded the farms I passed making it feel more like the farms of Maine, although sadly with the glorious wildfire of colors that Maine trees have now (I said goodbye to the last vestiges of that New England wonder in New York). I also drove through a "farm" of wind turbines spinning in such a seemingly slow lackadaisical way it was as if their turning in the air was simply an afterthought. I always marvel at that knowing the power that actually exists behind each turn, and how sudden death would be if I ever - god forbid - got in their way. My caffeine stop had helped perk me up, and stop that obnoxious eye twitch, but I'd been on the road for nine hours at that point and as the sun started setting I was more than ready to be done for the day. I also was reminding of just how annoying it is to be driving west with the setting sun shining right into your eyes. A little later I crossed into Nebraska and reached my hotel in Omaha. The cats and I are happily settled in for the night, and luckily (for me) the beds don't allow cats to hide underneath them so there will be no repeat of this morning tomorrow!
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I wanted to add to something from yesterdays post, something I couldn't quite find the right words for in my foggy, addled, exhausted brain last night, but was able to clarify in my mind today. I'd written about how lucky I was to have lived in two places I'd truly loved - something many people never experience. I said it had given me hope for what's to come, and while that is true I think the real blessing to that realization is that it has allowed me to refocus my emotions and become less sad about saying goodbye to Maine (or Alaska) and instead celebrate the gift I was given to have lived in such magical places. Whether Utah will be a third such place remains to be seen, but as I said yesterday I have hope.
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