There is no doubt in my mind that I'm a Midwesterner through and through. The dark nights of December and January, the bitter cold that is difficult to explain, the feel of shoveling for the fourth time with the realization it still isn't "enough". However, it is nice to get away. Leave it briefly. Appreciate what we do have between the snowflakes and drifts.
The mailbox is finally straight. It took a new post and a sledgehammer, but it stands proudly again, waiting to get the junk mail and Amazon packages. A sledgehammer. Just part of the Wisconsin toolkit.
There is a road trip ahead, though. And I'm excited about that. We didn't fly when I was a kid. So I've done road trips crisscrossing the country. I continued this in college marching band with bus trips to Florida, Texas and all over the Big 10 with 350 of my best friends strung along 7 motorcoaches. Our honeymoon was a big long drive to Glacier NP, driving back from Cut Bank MT to Freeport IL in one big long day. Needless to say, I didn't do the majority of the driving.
Modern road trips are different, though. Podcasts. Buc-ees. Quality coffee. Fancy Maple Cherry jerky. New flavors for Cheez Its even! Still, though, Waffle House, Denny's, Cracker Barrel and state Welcome Centers form the backbone. There will still be madcap pursuits such as driving across the state of Florida for lunch with friends from Wisconsin and dinner with our Mexico gang in Georgia. Too much junk food will be consumed and by Kentucky I'll already be calculating how many long bike rides it is going to take to burn off the calories consumed. The Cheez Itz will require careful attention of a car wash vacuum to eradicate from between the seats.
There is always an element of surprise on a trip. A view we didn't expect. Or a small bit of US History we never knew. A mural on the side of a building. Amidst the jerky, Pringles, and Milk Duds will be a small moment that comes unheralded and will be what is remembered. I'm ready for it.
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