Iowa, the giggles, and Omaha, Nebr

The day after Chicago was a long day of driving through Iowa... and in these photos our caffeinated loopiness shows loud and clear. I really liked Iowa, although it is flat we had the blue skies and hot weather we had wanted back in Chicago. The night before was a deep sleep in Ottawa, Illinois, that also contributed to a day of high antics.

At the World's Largest Truck Stop we should have suspected a case of car-related, caffeinated cabin fever had taken hold...

I don't think we even ate a real meal that day, in the attempt to get across Iowa in one day and spend the night in Omaha, Nebraska. I think that was the day I tried a bran muffin, but that goes to show there are Starbucks at the rest stops in Iowa. We were also happy to find an NPR station. :)

The rest stops keep going, and here I am starting to get cagey myself. Don't get me wrong, Iowa really is very beautiful.

Success! We cheered as we entered Nebraska right on schedule and Omaha welcomed us right before sunset.

The rest of the night was spent running around the streets of the city until after dark, using up the rest of the caffeine in our systems and shaking off the sweaty, sticky, sedentary nature of our trek from Illinois to Nebraska. We are running late this morning, so more later! :)

Chicago!

Our afternoon in Chicago was now 2 days ago, so much fun!






Yesterday we made it through all of Iowa with the most beautiful sunny weather. We have spent last night at a ridiculously fancy hotel in Omaha after cheers for entering Nebraska. We took a long walk around the city at night to take the (caffeinated) edge off an entire day of driving. Iowa stands out on this trip as one of the more remarkable states we have driven through. It was incredible just how far on the horizon you can see on a clear day, and the sights kept us in good spirits to get through the sticky heat and the roadside meal. :)

did somebody say road trip?

Hi again! Oh, my gosh, I had no idea how long it would take us to get to a wireless location! How is everybody? Good? Remember Etsy? Wow, I feel so out of touch!

Well, rest assured we are still on the road trip across America. I'll catch you up best as possible. Above are the characters in this wild romp. That's my lovely (almost 5 month pregnant with twins!) sister Celeste on the left, Swatchy there in the middle (I'll post about that later), me (crying) in the black jacket, and my friend P who normally resides in San Francisco on the right. Celeste flew out to Oregon ahead of us yesterday, and I'm happy to report got there safe and in good health! Meanwhile, P and I are on day 3 of this cross-country trek.

We started in Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. Here is the bridge leaving the Cape, where I grew up:

And this is where we got stuck in traffic for an hour and a half, where I lived last year... good old New York City:

The first day we drove through Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, got food in New Jersey, on through New York and Pennsylvania.

After spending the first night in a hotel in PA we set out for Adrian, Michigan, where P grew up.

Rain caught up with us in Ohio yesterday and followed along until this morning. We spent Wednesday with P's parents, went to see Iron Man and looked at P's childhood photos (why didn't I put him through that ritual of being home?) before the deepest sleep in days! Michigan in the rain:

This morning we set out to spend the afternoon in Chicago, spirits high:

...but about 4 hours later tempers were tested as our stomachs were growling:

Yikes! I was pretty testy. That meal was soooooo good, though. :)

I'll catch up with more of our trip around wonderful, beautiful, clean, amazing Chicago tomorrow night. We pushed to get into a hotel tonight before Lost came on and its P's turn to use the internet. It sure is great to be blogging again. Sleep well & thanks to all the comments recently... I feel like I've been away from the internet so long! : ) Happy Trails!

home (part 1)

Wow, I can't believe ho much I have missed blogging! Hi there! :)
I'm happy to say we have arrived safely and with most of our sanity here on Cape Cod.

The original plan was to depart PA on Sunday, and if necessary take an extra day for travel, arriving Monday. As it turns out (in a story still a bit to laden with stress to really recount) we ended up having many many more packing/ moving decisions to make and arrived here bedraggled and weary on Wednesday. Celeste was a trooper, she really pulled through, but there was no denying by the time we got here that the rest of the week would be spent recovering.

So, that being said, it turns out there is just about 10 days now to get everything done. I'm still hardwired to wake up between 5 and 6 so I'm hopeful that while I'm here I'll be drawing in the morning.

After taking Thursday and Friday mostly to rest, I got to take a trip up to Boston yesterday to see my bookstore friends. These are friends from the most incredible job I've held to date (I was there 2000-2004) and many of them are still in the area or even still at the store. I admit I was anxious about this visit, the last trip to Boston ended in a disastrous migraine leaving me barely any time with friends.

This time around there was no headache, a great turn out, and constantly changing locations (all including food) which was fun. I experienced a lot more moments of sadness than I expected, but with equal or greater moments of elation and happiness in between that are an obvious blessing. There is no other feeling quite the same as getting together with a group of people who, no matter what time has passed, pick up that connection with enthusiasm and ease. I think we all seek a feeling of stillness and comfort from the company of our closest friends; to have this in a group of 10 or more is really remarkable.