Day 12: Oh Kansas, You Followed Us to Oklahoma?!

As soon as we turned eastward, Asheville started pulling us like a magnet. Deserts, fields, hills, whatever, they all rolled on by with the gas station stops and wind farms. We listened to 8 straight hours of our audio book, On the Come Up, and only found a stop for the night when it was over. That was it. That was Day 12.

Since this story is on the wind down though, I’ll offer a few outtakes, if you will. Like this moment in a Kansas gas station, where Ben made his own momentary fun. Poor Kansas, I’m sorry your allure was not a good fit for our curiosity this time.

Remember those tiny windows in the Gateway Arch? Really, why are they so tiny? We debated it for a few miles during Kansas, but I still hold that artists and engineers who could figure out how to get us up there could figure out how to make it a more impressive experience at the top. (*says the non-architect tourist*)

Every traveling fellowship develops its own inside jokes and comic relief. One of ours was how Lia, our rapidly fledging teen, kept asking for and ordering from the kids menu, to the extent that we would deny her a full menu for the fun of it. Trust me, she eats like a baby bird (except for the car candy), so it’s a responsible strategy to limit leftovers.

But no doubt, she is rapidly fledging. Luckily not from the top of the Grand Canyon, but it is there where I caught this metaphorical moment of her place on the edge of the nest.

She wasn’t the only one on the edge though. Mr. Follow-the-Rules, Mr. Teacher-Dad-Voice, Mr. “Let me tell you how people die doing this thing” thought this was funny:

And I thought I was funny, pretty much all the time, immune to how “cringey” I am actually being. My family would tolerate me though, usually. And check me.

Ultimately, there’s a story in every moment, ones of grand scale and the small, regular ones. So many stories, we could write a book. Hey, now there’s an idea…;)!