The Quiet

 Travelling six days out of the last three weeks is quiet. Yes, the radio still plays classic rock loud.  Yes, I still sing in the car.  Yes, the grandkids hook up their phones to my car and play their music.  It's quiet in a different way.  A soul way.

I got six days of no doom scrolling.  Yes, I checked my phone every night and did a bit of scrolling.  But during the day you can't do that driving down the road.  So peaceful.

I noticed all the cattle.  Lots of calves.  I noticed the fields as I drove past.  They hayed in between my drives, so I enjoyed the fields full of hay rolls.  I loved the hawks that looked different than the ones at home.  Lighter in colors.  

Driving across the country you really get to see the beauty that is our country. So many different landscapes between the PNW and the Midwest. I enjoyed seeing the work being done, the trucks travelling down the road, the trains and all the road work getting done.  It's all positive amongst all the negativity of the doom scrolling.  

Did my soul good and gave me a different perspective for awhile.  

Nostalgia Rides

 I just finished up my second back-to-back trip to Indiana.  As I'm driving along, I am remembering all the trips before.  Prior to 2000 all trips through Idaho meant a stop in Coeur d'Alene to see my uncle Ernest. His house is still there, but the property around it has been turned into a housing development.  

Seems I always spend my first night in Billings.  I don't have a reason other than it is on the way and seems like a good stop.  One of my friends asked me what is in Billings.  My answer was I don't really know.  I get off the freeway, spend the night in a hotel and get back on the freeway in the morning.  But in my memory banks is the fact that my dad lived there for a while back in the day and we spent a little time there on a visit.

I tend to use the same gas stations, hotels and fast-food places.  One gas stop is always in Miles City.  Mom lived there for a year in the early 90's.  

I pass a lot of memory producing places.  The oil wells take me back to when there were a lot more of them you could see from the highway.  The big cow on the hill stands out, and now there is a chicken I sometimes spot.  I almost always swing through Painted Canyon looking for the bison.  Most of the time I do not spot them (like neither trip this summer) but I am so happy when I do.  Just pure joy.  Fargo has a memory pull that I can't quite get.  Something to do with visiting friends of my dad's.  Minnesota is all things family.  I swing by Wayne and Helga's when I go through Illinois.  Now I just see Helga and count myself blessed.  

The best nostalgic memory though is all the Fallen Rocks sign.  When I was very young and we made the trek from MN to Idaho Grandpa always said, "that Indian gets around" and we always asked what Indian.  He would proclaim Fallen Rocks.  Fallen Rocks could very well be an Indian name. 

So, when people ask me about the long drive and how I do it, I just say I do.  Terri and I had a conversation a few years ago when we met for lunch (another nostalgia thing as we can't do that anymore) about driving long and hard.  We both are children of long-haul truck drivers, and it seems to be part of our make-up.  For me it is like taking a trip back in time and remembering all that came before on those trips.  Trips with grandparents, parents, husband, self and grandchildren.  This trip was no different.  And now I have grandchildren saying hey I remember that from last time or a couple of trips ago.  

New Scenes From the Road

 

Made a quick driving trip (not so quick) to Indiana to pick up my grandson and his friend.  Three days there and three days right back.  Sunday through Friday.  Home for the Fourth.

When driving I am always looking for wildlife.  Hopefully not on the freeway.  This trip I saw three live deer, not on the freeway.  The first one was on an uphill embankment next to the freeway.  It was heading uphill and looked at me. So majestic.  The other two were just in ditches eating.  The boys got to see those ones. The most exciting was the coyote that ran across the road.  It stopped just at the edge and turned around and looked at me.  I was sending it move on thoughts.  It was nowhere near in danger of me hitting it, but it could be on the other side as it finished crossing.  I didn't see a roadrunner.  Then there were the three chipmunks who crossed the freeway.  Those critters are fast.  Amazingly so.  All three made it.

When we were travelling through Oregon there was a sign about HWY14 being closed due to a wildfire.  It didn't appear to be a big one.  But the boys were fascinated about the helicopter fighting the fire by grabbing water from the Columbia River to drop on the fire.  That is a pretty good skillset for the pilot.  And not something the boys get to see every day.

We stayed at Brenda's in Minnesota and the boys played with Daisy.  Wearing her out and getting rid of some of their energy.  The next night was a hotel in Billings that had a pool.  Again, getting rid of the energy that builds up all day from travelling.  Every gas stop I had built in window washers.  A necessary chore when on the road, although I noticed there weren't as many bugs this year.  

It was another very quiet trip for traffic.  Obviously, cities had traffic.  But the country seemed very similar to the covid summer.  Same last year.  Very very odd.  Gas prices were fine all the way across once out of the PNW.  Less than $3 a gallon in Indiana which amazed me. Illinois was still the highest I saw beyond the PNW. 

All in all a great trip.