East Coast

Moppy and I talked the whole way across the country. There was a brief break somewhere in Kansas where we listened to music for about an hour and ten minutes. The rest was spent gabbing, giggling, and guffawing. What a gift my mom is. We made it through the bad roads of Kansas City, the depressing billboards of the mid-west, and one of our hotels being struck by lightning. We also found ourselves at a Wendy's who's bathroom was out of soap. This was a fairly minor inconvenience until we both had the same thought at the same time. "The employees! They can't wash their hands!" 

We shrieked silently in the bathroom and then both ordered salads and drinks with no lids. "Don't let them touch anything, Laura!" Mom scoffed. "and don't touch that!"

We drove straight home from Keeneland on the Friday of Labor Day weekend. We ran into some traffic near Asheville so we stopped to look through a rug-store warehouse. Back on the road, I felt my first mini-surge of excitement to be in South Carolina. It was just that. A little surge and it fluttered off as quickly as it came. We continued our mindless chatting and found ourselves in North Charleston around 9:00. I looked out at the twinkling lights of Downtown as we crossed the bridge to James Island and I didn't even notice it was a sight I hadn't seen since May.

I don't suppose there's any questions as to where I went first.

There's really nothing quite like the east coast. I love the salty smell and hot, moist air. I love the faint scent of jasmine and the squeaking seagulls in the sky. It's all so quiet and warm. 

It's very strange to drive from a wild rocky coast, through tall dense trees, over rough jagged mountains and across red sanded deserts to find yourself in dry, bare plains, to rolling fields of golden wheat and deep green rows of corn. The corn fields lead to farm land to grass land, to green wooly mountains and across green fields to swampy, mossy oak trees at the edge of a marsh to the ocean. 

How do you do all of that and then report back to reality?

I've decided that my favorite chunk of the country is the Kentucky/Tennessee, Virginia/North Carolina chunk. I've found myself dreaming of those rolling green hills. I love the South and I love the water but maybe going up a bit wouldn't be so bad. It's awfully hot down here. 

I'm not quite happy to be home yet. I'll tell you all about it in my next post. I've only been here five days but I haven't stopped moving or had a chance to readjust. I haven't even unpacked.

I'm trying to get settled and report back to duty but someone hasn't left my side since I got here.