On the way here we stopped briefly to see some sights. By briefly I mean 10 to 15 minutes tops to take a photo, stretch our legs, then be on our way again. If you are my Facebook friend you can see a few photos there. Maybe I'll post some here in the coming days, but for now just a few updates and observations with have to suffice.
Once we crossed into South Dakota we were truly in the flatlands. Leigh had never seen flat land before, being from southwest Virginia and having typically flown to the west coast, so it was very new for her. This is my third trip across country by car but my first as an adult, so it all felt very new to me also. I think I have some vague memories of similar sights from my childhood, but things just don't stick with you in the same factual manner until you are older. Though tiresome, the trip was pleasant. We didn't have any problems with our trusty Toyota Yaris Betsy and we never got lost thanks to our GPS we call Greta. Juneau the Cat was even well behaved the whole time. She slept like an angel most of the day in the car, never cried, and then prowled around our motel room at night only disturbing us with the sounds of her eating her dinner and sometimes jumping up on the bed hoping for some attention.
While driving through the heartland I realized that the Midwest is probably the most quintessentially American place in the country. When I think of the term "All American" I think of wide open spaces, the flag flying, good natured and hard-working people under the sunshine with a bootstrap mentality. However, these characteristics are not widely found on the East Coast or the West Coast. I don't intend to be judgmental, but the East Coast can be pretty snobby, uptight, and conformist. Likewise, the West Coast is really focused on social status, looks, money, and the "granola" image (without always being genuinely "granola"). These are not bad places to live or work, in fact I love many places on both costs, but neither really fulfills these Americanisms like one might assume.
The Heartland, however, seems to embody these characteristics to a T. Obviously, the wide open spaces are everywhere. In fact, once we got to Wyoming and Montana, we would often drive 3 or 4 hours between towns and then sometimes that town was a series of 10 to 15 little buildings along the side of a two-lane highway and then we'd glide back into nothingness. The fields go on for miles and the most life we saw was in the form of horses and cows (and sometimes lambs!). It was great. The flag flies everywhere in those parts, but not in an obnoxious way. As opposed to many places where it's overwhelming, seeing the flag in the Heartland is kind of beautiful and refreshing. Plus everyone we met was friendly, just living their lives with a smile. In fact, when we stopped at a tiny ice cream place for milkshakes in a tiny town in eastern Montana the sign on the door said, "Enter as Strangers, Leave as Friends." Nice, eh?
So now we're in Missoula, which is a great little city. The downtown area is made entirely of locally owned businesses, there's an abundance of yummy food, tea, coffee, etc. We have plans to poke around the town, drink some local beer, and do some hiking plus maybe take in some live music, etc. Should be fun. Probably Monday we'll go to Idaho to visit another Juneau friend of mine then on to Washington to start working.
This is going to be a great summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment