Once we pointed our headlight west (I guess the other one wasn’t up for the challenge) there was not too much thought about anything but getting home. Home. Home. Just the sound of that word drives us on. Hugging our friends and family, just being in their presence, sleeping in our own house on a real bed. Cousin dog piles, coffee dates, familiar streets, mountains, the Columbia River Gorge, I could go on and on. The weather was cold with an inch or two of fresh snow.
we held our breath on the side streets and braced ourselves for a whole day of slow going. To our surprise we were on clear dry streets by the time we hit Madison. Having been up all night I fell asleep after we crossed into Iowa and pretty much missed the rest of the state. What I did see was completely lovely.
There are sweet little knolls everywhere and picturesque farms topped the knolls. They had round bales dotting the recently harvested fields now coated with a half inch of snow. I have never seen round bales of cornstalks. Hay yes, corn no. But for sure it was round bales of corn. We crossed into Nebraska and I had to sing Mark Lowrey’s “First Class Wrong Flight” song where he gets on the wrong plane and ends up in Omaha.
The sun set as we headed into Lincoln.
The kids have not wined or complained at all. We have listened to “Black Beauty,” and some “Ramona Quimby.” The kids have colored and read. I think they are as eager as we are to get home and even though they have been in the car since 6:00AM they would be OK with driving through the night. As I am on a night shift schedule and feel ready for an all nighter I can’t say the thought hadn’t crossed my mind, but I promise we won’t.
Owens Endeavors 