1. Humidity is not my friend. When we made
our first stop in Kansas, I got out of the car and couldn’t figure out why I
couldn’t breathe. Having not been east in the summertime in more than twenty
years, I had forgotten completely about humidity. My kids have never
experienced it at all, so we stood in the rest stop parking lot trying to
explain it to them—and that, strangely enough, this is how most of the world
is. The air was so thick in St. Louis that I finally had to ask a woman at the
museum we were visiting if she noticed the humidity. She looked at me like I was
a preschooler and said, “I’m from Memphis.” Not a helpful exchange. I will take
our cracked skin, nosebleeds, and static electricity any day over weird hair,
soggy clothes, and all those blasted insects. (Please don’t let it get out that
Colorado doesn’t have many bugs. Pot, yes, but not bugs.)
2. Breakfast is the best meal of the day,
especially when it’s free. I love the trend toward free hotel breakfasts,
especially when traveling with a party of six. We can go a long way on a bowl
of Raisin Bran and a mini muffin. At the Drury Inn in downtown St. Louis, we
even got free “snacks” in the evening, which included hot dogs, chili, salad,
baked potatoes, chicken nuggets, and veggies. Very few things make me happier
than watching my kids scarf down “free” food.
3. Nothing makes a day go by faster than good
fiction. I normally keep myself on a diet of non-fiction reading because I
know it’s good for me. On this trip, I finished one non-fiction book and two
great novels. One was about Nazi Germany and the other about slave trade during
the Revolutionary War, so not complete rot. Just enough to make me feel like I
was journeying along with some fascinating characters, in addition to the
characters in the car with me. (This is when it comes in handy to have a
husband who correctly believes that I’m not a great driver.)
4. Getting together with family needs to
happen more often than every 11 years. When you spend every birthday,
holiday, and regular old day with all of your children, it’s hard to imagine
that some day they won’t all be in your face—or at least in the same place at
the same time. But my mom had not ever had her two kids and six grandkids
together. The last time we were all together she had three rambunctious, whiny
little grandsons and just one granddaughter who couldn’t even walk. I’m
convinced that nothing blesses an empty-nested mother more than having all her
chicks in one nest again. And the chicks all got along so well together, which
was the icing on the cake. I hope my children will do this for me some
day.
