X-Country

No, I never was in cross country in high school.  One season of track was all I could manage, and enough to know what I didn't want.  I've never crossed the country from front to back, but there was that north-south trip I did a few times down and back... which trips felt like all Iowa, all the time, with the rest being comprised of melting rush hours' worth of cities in Texas. 

I have, however, started in the Midwest and finished in the Far West... done that twice now.  Let's see if I can remember the first trip... Ah, yes.  I must have been starting college, because my brother had just finished up and was marrying his sweetheart. I don't remember much about the drive there, and even less about the drive back, although I assume we did that, too.  So I'll confine my memoir to a few items of note.

Noteworthy:

My sister may have just started driving.  I may have almost run over a large blown-out tire in plain view on the interstate.  My dad may have gone slightly crazy driving sleep-deprived through the mountain passes.  He may have stopped part way through, got out of the car with a glazed look in his eyes, checked out the scenery, and started flapping his wings and, well, hooting, for lack of a better term.  My mom may have bought her dress for the wedding in Missoula, MT. 

We stayed overnight in our old hometown in ND.  Must have seen a few people, but I don't recall who... probably "Grandma Margaret."  One of the Grandma Margarets, anyway.  There was a city one and a country one.  I think it was the country one.  Where they lived on a farm, with real farm animals and lots of "barn kitties."  Where we had helped the neighbors slaughter a semi truck full of... chickens?  Turkeys?  I helped pluck one, at any rate.  Or was it the city one?  She had written a children's story book, and used to try and comb the snarls out of my sister's hair whenever she was over.  We stayed with her anytime we were "snowed in"--when the busses couldn't drive us home after it had snowed.  Once, that I recall.  So yes, it might have been her.

We stayed in a hotel for the first time (at least in my memory).  Somewhere in nowhere, MT.  I don't know that my parents have stayed in one since.  Nasty, expensive, unnecessary inconveniences, especially as they don't travel anywhere they can't stay with family.

It started: Flat, few trees, growing drier as you head west.  Then even drier, but rocky.  Then a bit more green, mostly flat, with the exception of buttes.  Then Coeur d'Alene.  Gorgeous.  Then dry.  Then wet.  With some mountains in between.  Fill in the blanks, and you've got Northwestern American Geography!

Ever done one of these drives?  Try it.  Maybe, if you're lucky, you can stay with Grandma Margaret.  Or the other one.