Closer to Home

5 March 2013

We had a marathon driving day today –  650 miles, which took us 11 hours.  Good thing we crossed into Mountain Time zone so we gained an hour.  We had the oil changed first thing this morning and then we were off.  We only stopped to get gas and change drivers, except for a half hour stop for Kaleb and Kory to have a snowball fight at one of the rest stops (below).  There was plenty of snow piled up from the storm a week or so ago, so it provided a much needed bit of exercise for the two of them.  I used the time to just walk around the picnic area as I desperately needed to stretch my legs.  There were hundreds of thousands of snow geese flying overhead at the time.  It was almost like being on Fir Island in the winter, only there were way more of them here.  We passed them for miles as we drove, it was quite the sight.  We even passed one pond where they took up every square inch.  Bald eagles weren’t far away, either, just like home, only it was Nebraska!

As we were heading north out of Kansas this morning, I got a call from cousin Jim Bower, who was checking in on us (love that!) and suggested we bypass all the traffic in Denver and just go straight north up Hwy 81 into Nebraska to catch Interstate 80.  I’m so glad he suggested that as we were practically the only ones on any road we took today so it was easy driving, except for the strong winds earlier this morning, which rocked us back and forth pretty good.  But Kaleb got to add yet another state to his “been there/done that” map as we hadn’t planned on going through Nebraska at all.  It saved us so much time we made it to Cheyenne, Wyoming just as it got dark.  Initially I was hoping to see a few friends in Denver, but the timing didn’t work out once we changed our schedule.  Sad.

Kaleb spent nearly the whole day doing as much schoolwork as he could.  He’s picking one subject at a time and doing it all straight through.  At least he knows how to focus and accomplish a task.  Kory did the bulk of driving but I managed to get several hours in, as it was just so easy, I’m sure Kaleb could have handled it.  The roads were clear, smooth, straight and no traffic.  What more can a person want?

We got the saddest new tonight, however, that Tante Kari is on her last few days or hours of life.  My heart breaks that we can’t be in Norway right now, and that we will miss her funeral.  Her son, Cousin Odd, has a birthday tomorrow, which makes the timing of everything even harder.  With her gone, our time in Norway won’t be nearly as fun this year since she added so much life and excitement to our days there.

Oh, I forgot to write about a few things from days past.  Kaleb wanted to go back to Universal Studios after we returned from the Bahamas because he came up with a great idea.  He said they have a “Back to the Future” exhibit there and he wanted to rush into that area, ask someone what year it was and when they told him he was going to shout out, ‘YES!  It worked!” and run off.   Ha ha.

Also, when we drove through Memphis, I noticed they rival Seattle for the number of Starbucks on every street corner.  Hadn’t seen anything like it anywhere else we’ve been.  Memphis is a very affluent city, as opposed to anywhere in Arkansas where it’s poor poor poor and no where are there any kind of espresso stand in all the land.  I think it’s so weird that in Arkansas and Missouri they have so many folks on welfare, while all the illegal Mexicans work in the chicken houses.  There’s just something wrong with that picture.

We are in yet another Walmart parking lot for the night, and for as much as they are vilified throughout the land, I’m forever grateful we have a safe place to sleep in nearly every town in America.  Kaleb said it’s a lot like our condo in Norway, where we are attached to the mall and we just walk out of the elevator and we’re in the grocery store.  It’s like that when we stay at Walmart because they are open 24 hours and we do run in and get whatever we need, so it’s pretty handy.  They are all set up about the same so we know right where to go, too. 

The cousins in Missouri told us that Walmart’s growth has saved the entire state of Arkansas from collapse as they have a huge empire in the NW corner of the state where the first Walmart originated.  They require all their vendors to put representatives in their city, so every company that wants to sell something at Walmart has to have someone within reach – which caused a huge building growth in that town as companies had to relocate their sales people to Bentonville, Arkansas.  It’s efficient, I’m sure.

Kaleb has been downright irritating with his efforts to get us home earlier and earlier as he’s missing his friends something terrible.  But he did tell me today, “This has been a pretty fun road trip, you know?”  Yes, I know.  I’m so glad we got to do it.