Seeing The Nice Flyover Spaces
My kids left on July 26 for a road trip to Tuscon, Arizona with their father, their step-mother, their adorable 4 year old half brother and their profoundly dumb--and I don't mean bark-less--Wheaten terrier. All of them in a Honda Pilot. They drove the mid-southern route: Pennyslvania, Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and finally Arizona.
I'm afraid that at least via phone the most insightful comment on the trip so far is "the desert goes for as far as you can see and then it's just mountains". That was from New Mexico. From Oklahoma he said "everyone is fat and they smoke". He said this without disdain and with a bit of awe.
It has been twenty years since I drove across country but I believe that everyone kid should do so. Every person actually. I was lucky. I went to college in the midwest and driving two or three gigantic states across wasn't unusual for us. We called it "car camping". I was always fascinated by the differences in the landscapes and the regional differences in the accents and the people themselves. I wondered whether the kids would notice any perceptible differences in the people. They did. Kid 2 is now telling everyone he is moving to Tennessee as soon as possible because the people are "really nice.". I am hoping my kids found it fascinating beyond descriptors like 'nice', 'fat' and 'nicotine-dependent'.
At the same time, they are Californians at heart. On Wednesday, my two kids will fly to Bakersfield to visit with my old college roommate and her husband for a couple of days in the Central Valley. Then they will be driven back to Bakersfield and Kid 1's beloved former nanny and my former copy editor will be flown to Big Bear Lake. If that sounds like more than one person it's not surprising but that's a story for another time. Syd left the journalism and nanny businesses long ago and has worked as a commercial pilot for years. Now she flies and writes wonderful young adult fiction. She will pick the kids up in Bakersfield and fly them to her home in BBL. Kid 2 gets to play co-pilot and he is thrilled. Next week the two of them will fly home to New York via US Air. Quite an adventure. I am grateful to their father and his wife for making it possible for the kids. There are times when my ex-husband is pretty great.
I'm afraid that at least via phone the most insightful comment on the trip so far is "the desert goes for as far as you can see and then it's just mountains". That was from New Mexico. From Oklahoma he said "everyone is fat and they smoke". He said this without disdain and with a bit of awe.
It has been twenty years since I drove across country but I believe that everyone kid should do so. Every person actually. I was lucky. I went to college in the midwest and driving two or three gigantic states across wasn't unusual for us. We called it "car camping". I was always fascinated by the differences in the landscapes and the regional differences in the accents and the people themselves. I wondered whether the kids would notice any perceptible differences in the people. They did. Kid 2 is now telling everyone he is moving to Tennessee as soon as possible because the people are "really nice.". I am hoping my kids found it fascinating beyond descriptors like 'nice', 'fat' and 'nicotine-dependent'.
At the same time, they are Californians at heart. On Wednesday, my two kids will fly to Bakersfield to visit with my old college roommate and her husband for a couple of days in the Central Valley. Then they will be driven back to Bakersfield and Kid 1's beloved former nanny and my former copy editor will be flown to Big Bear Lake. If that sounds like more than one person it's not surprising but that's a story for another time. Syd left the journalism and nanny businesses long ago and has worked as a commercial pilot for years. Now she flies and writes wonderful young adult fiction. She will pick the kids up in Bakersfield and fly them to her home in BBL. Kid 2 gets to play co-pilot and he is thrilled. Next week the two of them will fly home to New York via US Air. Quite an adventure. I am grateful to their father and his wife for making it possible for the kids. There are times when my ex-husband is pretty great.
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