I-35: St. Paul to Wichita

For me, the most difficult part of any road trip is leaving home. There is something so comforting about home in every sense of home. Home for me is Minnesota--ever since I moved to Minnesota for college, I felt as though the state embraced me. For some reason, it felt like I belonged here. After graduating from St. Olaf, I moved to the twin cities and have no desire to leave. I love the twin cities! I can't put words to everything I love about the twin cities, but it is a unique area that fits my sensibilities well.

Of course, the other nice thing about home is MY HOME. It's not much--a one-bedroom apartment in a building that consists mostly of elderly people--but it's my space. I lead a busy life; I run around constantly from one activity to another. My home is my quiet space where I can just be in between all the chaos. I love the chaos, and I love the quiet. But leaving the calm of my home can be daunting when faced with the unexpected adventures of a road trip.

Please don't misunderstand me--I love driving. I seriously have an addiction to driving--I love jumping behind the wheel of my car and going places (even if it's just to "secret Target" a few miles away). I am not one who knows a lot about cars and their inner workings, but I delight in driving a manual transmission. (Of course, maybe that's just because with all the shifting--which is especially quick and satisfying in highway acceleration--I feel like a race car driver!)

Once I actually get myself out the door (at least an hour later than initially planned) and on the road . . . ahhhh. Driving through the wide open spaces of southern Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas today, I could feel my mind relaxing. After a morning of packing the car, making sure all appliances were properly shut off, making sure everything was locked, checking that I had paid all bills that would require attention, and all those other minor homely details one needs to attend to before leaving town, it was nice to relax. Admittedly, Iowa is NOT my favorite state for driving, but with the beautiful, sunny weather today, it didn't seem so bad. The grasses are so green right now, the clouds were so puffy in the sky, part of me wanted to pull off the side of the road, lay on my back, and play the cloud-shape game for a while.

By the time I reached the Flint Hills of Kansas this evening, I was enthralled with this heartland driving. The rolling slopes of the Flint Hills reminded me vaguely of a flatter rendition of the west coast of Ireland. (I said vaguely!) There was livestock roaming freely, and either the lighting was playing tricks (which is entirely possible, as there was a major storm rolling in that hit mere minutes after I stopped for the night), or this area of Kansas has the prettiest emerald green grass I've seen in recent days.

Of course, today's trip was aided by Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. I realize this may seem an odd choice of audio book for a 30-year-old, but I decided to "read" this series for two reasons. 1) I teach middle school, and the last young adult book series I read was the Harry Potter series. While I fervently hope that Mr. Potter and his friends will never go out of fashion with the kids (because I LOVED the entire series), I realized that I needed to branch out a bit. 2) My youngest sister, who just finished her freshman year of high school, blazed through the books this spring. She gave them a very high recommendation. I must say I agree with her--the book was action-packed and was simple to visualize in my mind's eye as I drove. It was easy to follow, entertaining, and the ties to Greek mythology made my nerdy heart happy. I am already looking forward to listening to the second book on tomorrow's drive! And to anyone else who has ever read this series, I totally want a Grover of my very own.