Road Trip!

Once upon a time, M & K used to go on road trips all the time. With a loose itinerary and a spirit of adventure, we picked roads by flipping coins and pulled over randomly to pick berries on the side of the road. We never knew where we would sleep at night, but always had firewood and beer. There were some crazy good times back in the summer of 2006.

We have a placemat that has a geo-political map of the United States. Laurel inspects it over breakfast and asks where everybody she knows lives (which is mostly in Pittsburgh). It confuses her that Grandpa Curly could live on the same dot as we do, when he clearly lives very far away over a river and through some woods. Oh, geography. You really need to get in your car (or better yet, if you have the disposition, get out a backpack and walk) at a meandering pace to really understand the expansiveness of the United States. I remember being totally blown away by the historic Lewis and Clark highway, which roughly follows their journey west.

M had a conference in DC this weekend, and he took Laurel with him. She did not want to talk to me last night before bed, but this morning she called me to tell me she was "at Maryland and ate yogurt for breakfast. And berries." She's hanging out with his relatives during the day and is most definitely going to have a good time.

Next week, when I show her Maryland on the placemat map, what will she think?