Chicago and home
Aunt Audrey and Uncle Lefty are a hoot. I feel happy for Aunty Audrey because I think she feels she’s lived in the just the right eras. Her sense of thrift and the way she holds on to things fits with her view that technology has corrupted social mores. What a memory! She will tell a story from her early teens as if it happened yesterday. Uncle Lefty, nicknamed in his baseball-playing days, is quiet, but punctuates whatever is happening, or perhaps just what he’s thinking, with a deep, growly chuckle.
We are in the home stretch, having left Chicago a day earlier than intended. The kids are just dying to get home and were begging that we leave as soon as possible. There’s been a powerful tension for them between wanting to continue the adventure and wanting to go home. I could stay on the road for considerably longer, not because I don’t miss folks. I do, but I already miss the simplicity of getting up each morning and seeing something amazing, then going to bed and doing all over again the next day. And there’s the no mail to sort through. No bathrooms to clean. No weeding.
I will miss the shudder of joy at crawling into my sleeping back with Huck Finn and the insomniac nights watching the big Wyoming sky at 2 a.m. I will miss seeing wild animals at a stone’s throw and building campfires with the kids. The chance meetings and strange neighbors. The wide, endless space. How good my hair looked without humidity.
I won’t miss sharing a bathroom with strangers, though I can’t say it bothered me much. I won’t miss running out of food and going to McDonalds, which did happen a few times on this trip. I kept it as minimal as possible, but you do have to eat out sometimes, and mostly the food on this trip majorly sucked. It’ll be a while before I cross paths with a french fry again. Some notable culinary exceptions were the Mexi-Bus in West Yellowstone and Garrett Chicago Mix- crisp, buttery, cheese and crackly caramel popcorn tossed together in a wax paper bag.
This trip was kind of like New Year’s in that I found myself making little resolutions along the way. Aunt Audrey’s amazing collection of kitsch and vintage toys made me want to save more things. Hiking and seeing Steve train made me want to exercise more, and outside, too. Seeing how much my in-laws love the kids, and how much the kids love them, made me vow to write to them more. Send photos and such. Seeing Lynn J. sew a shawl for Kaya with Esme, and also spending a month with the ugliest brown curtains in tarnation, made me vow to dust off my sewing machine and try again to learn how to use it. I want to help Stephen get more exercise. After weeks of insomnia he slept like a baby on camping nights. I also want to make a jell-o mold. A layered one with bits suspended inside. There’s more, but you get the idea.
I am looking forward to seeing my wonderful friends, and my mom, and the Hudson, and a movie.
