Through the Midwest toward home

If my spirit lives out west, with its big open sky and incredible mountains and desert, then my soul is in the Midwest. Driving from southern Minnesota through Wisconsin and into Indiana, I was flooded with memories of times I hadn’t thought about in over 15 years. My college years and the time I spent in my twenties just trying to figure out who the hell I was were rich with friendship and family. I knew that a crowded campground was the last place I wanted to be for the 4^th of July. I wanted to be in the Heartland, the Bible belt where I grew up. I wanted to be at the Lake where I had spent nearly every 4^th of July from birth to age 18. “The Lake” in my family needed no other name, but for the sake of clarity, the Lake is Adams Lake in Wolcottville, IN……surrounded by corn fields, Amish buggies, and some of the best people I’ve ever had the good fortune of knowing.

I loved how my kids fell right into the rhythms of lake life with my cousins, Anne, Kat and Jack and with my aunt and uncle, Jill and Brad. Jackson and Anna were wet most of the time, and we just spent the days moving from the deck to the boat to the sandbar and back. My parents were able to join us for a few days and it was great to be with them. Jill has always been more like a big sister to me than anything and I loved that I could just catch up with her and Brad with no agenda or other place we had to be. This place is where my heart is. There is no other place on earth that I love like this one.

Kat teaching Anna how to drive whiffle balls off the sea wall.

My beautiful cousins, Kat and Anne

Jackson and Anna with Kat, Brad and Jill

Kat teaching Anna how to wakeboard

So crazy for me to see her behind the boat on a wakeboard. Nice coaching, Kat.

Anne, Anna, Kat and Jackson

Captain Jack

Kat was such a sport tubing with the little kids, she deserved to take a load off on this one.

In Cincinnati, the place where I grew up, I was able to show my kids the houses where I spent my childhood, the schools I went to, and the city I’ve come to appreciate as an adult. We stayed with my childhood friend, Kara, and her husband, Mike, and their twins, Matthew and Henry. Mike and Kara made us feel totally at home and at ease despite the fact that we landed in their house during the middle of the work week. I loved being able to chat with one of my dearest friends and watch how our husbands found common ground and made each other laugh. I also appreciated how my family put up with me while I drove past old haunts and visited the Riverfront, which I’ve always loved, in oppressive heat and humidity, completely foreign to my little VT woodchucks. I rewarded their patience with LaRosa’s pizza and Graeter’s ice cream. But when I drove in the early morning to the Wyoming Bakery to make sure I got to the smiley face cookies that are the closest thing to heaven on earth, I was denied with a cardboard sign on the door informing us that they were on vacation and would be open the following week. Kara has since promised she would ship a dozen cookies to us along with the hairbrush that my darling daughter left in their bathroom.

Mike and Kara with their sweet boys.

 Following a compulsory visit to King’s Island, we drove on to the Gunks (the Shawangunks, a famous climbing area just south of Albany, NY) where we met our dear friends, Bert and Ryane, and their newest addition, Eliza. It was so great to be back with friends from VT and helped us adjust to the idea that our journey was coming to an end. We camped and climbed together and it was so much fun to see our friends so utterly enraptured with their new daughter and so entertaining to see them adjusting to their new role as parents. It warmed our hearts to see our friends so happy.

Eliza and Anna

Ryane, Eliza and Bert

Good ole bubbles to keep the little ones happy

 When we drove north for a night at Lake George, then more climbing in the Adirondacks, Jackson and Anna came to the realization that across Lake Champlain……….was home. So despite the fact that Alex and I had planned to spend an additional week in the Adirondacks, the kids all of a sudden felt an urgent need to be home. We made the most of our last day climbing near Chapel Pond. It was a gloriously sunny day and we managed to pick some climbs that were perfect for the kids and one last multi-pitch climb that left Alex and I both feeling really satisfied.

Climbing in the Daks

J-man

Homeschooling

Our last day

As we got on the ferry to go home, I have to admit I felt really torn. Part of me was ready for my own bed and the familiarity of home. But just as much of me didn’t want it to end. I think under the right circumstances Alex and I could have stayed on the road forever. We started our life together with a shared interest in wandering and will hopefully find ways to satisfy that wanderlust as Jackson and Anna grow up.  We also now have the knowledge of how doable it is to pack up and go wherever we want to go, as long as we have each other. Our needs are pretty simple and most of them fit into an overnight bag. So I make myself feel better with the knowledge that we’re at the end of THIS trip. I don’t think it’ll be long before we start planning the next one. 

the ferry to VT