The Indy 528!

I know it doesn't have quite the same ring to it as the iconic car race, but that is how many miles I drove to Indianapolis and back this weekend, and I couldn't resist the connection! I guess if I had taken one or two fewer detours I could have made it in a flat 500. Goal for next time . . .

So, why the reason for this spontaneous trip to the Hoosier State, you may ask? Two reasons:

1. To celebrate the end of my eight-week summer job, in which I took zero weekend adventures!

2. Once upon a time, I participated in an activity called drum & bugle corps. I mean, if you're reading this blog you probably know this. In a nutshell: Drum & bugle corps is like marching band, except with only drums and brass, and it operates at a much higher level than marching band. For three years, I spent at least one weekend a month in Seattle, practicing marching and music with the Seattle Cascades, the nearest corps to me. As soon as school let out in June, we would hit the road, and spend each day rehearsing for several hours, competing in the evening, then driving overnight to our next destination, usually a high school whose gym we would sleep in before spending another day practicing on the football field. The performance, precision, challenges, and victories all made it one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I can't even begin to list the ways in which I changed and grew through those three summers - and its long-lasting effects have been too many to count. In terms of the marching music world, I've found many ways to stay involved, but I'm certain that the discipline and courage I learned have stuck with me in many facets of my life.

Anyway. I'll save the rest for the next inspirational essay I need to write. Every summer now, the finals competition is in Indianapolis, just four(ish) short hours away from my home in Athens! I've always intended to go, and it never quite happened, but this year it fit in my schedule, and at the quiet but firm urging of my youngest sister, I decided to go.

Athens' normally perfect summer weather has gone on its own momentary August vacation, so it was about 55 degrees out when I arose early Friday morning. The sky hung with gray as I made my way north on US-33. I briefly worried about encountering morning rush-hour traffic (the ways of big cities are a mystery to me), but I easily navigated I-70 through town, and before I knew it I was heading west.

There's a point in the drive from Athens to Columbus where suddenly the hills flatten out, replaced by rolling farmland. Green becomes brown; forests give way to sheaths of corn and oats. It's easy to not notice this transition as it occurs, but it's always instantly obvious once free of the city. Heading west, I was surrounded by fields and flat farmland, stretching along the interstate in every direction.

There's something about heading west that always evokes a bit of the pioneer in me. There's just some tiny thrill about heading into the sunset, knowing that ahead of me is the vast prairie and, a thousand miles past that, the Continental Divide. Somewhere beyond lies the Pacific Ocean and, of course, my home state. That little inkling of a thrill grew the further west I went, and the higher the sun climbed in the sky, imbuing my whole journey with a sunny blessing, urging me to just keep on heading west, destination unknown.

By the time I reached Indianapolis, the sun was shining brightly and there was barely a cloud in the sky. I arrived at Lucas Oil Stadium not long before the Cascades rolled up in their charter buses to begin warming up for their last show.

The Cascades weren't the only group I was there to watch. Before I left Eugene, I was a visual instructor for a handful of different groups in Oregon. The last year before I left, three years ago, I had the opportunity to put in a lot of hard work with my high school's marching band program. I had to leave a few weeks before the season ended to move to Ohio, but I've remained very proud of what we accomplished that fall, and I've stayed in touch with a few students with whom I felt a great connection and inspiration. One of those students just completed her first summer touring with the Oregon Crusaders, a slightly smaller corps based out of Portland. Words don't express the joy and pride this fills me with, knowing that I helped inspire her and maybe teach her some of the skills that led her down this path. Another friend of our family, who I briefly taught, also spent the summer with Crusaders, so it was a sort of homecoming for me. The full weight of this dawned on me as I neared the capital city, and I was overcome by a wave of emotion, weeping as I drove. Needless to say, I was just - just happy to see these people, to see them in uniform, to see them march.

I also got to spend a great amount of quality time with friends who I had marched with who had spent the summer teaching with Cascades, many of whom are educators in their own right. I aged out five summers ago, and yet this world still exists for me. That was another amazing revelation. So, we'll see where that leads.

I spent the next two days doing a good bit of socializing (see above), exploring Indy, and watching countless awe-inducing musical productions. There was a parade in downtown Indy on Saturday which all the corps participated in, and afterward I was lucky enough to stumble upon the Cascades playing the corps song, an arrangement of "Imagine" that resonates deeply in my soul.

After weathering an enormous thunderstorm Saturday night (thankfully we were inside the stadium and not at the Indiana State Fair across town- my heart goes out to those who were!), I was up early Sunday morning for the drive back to Athens!

Since this was an adventure, I decided to take a different route across the Buckeye State that would direct me through more of the alternately flat and hilly farmland. I left Indianapolis on I-70 going east (never quite as exciting as heading west, for some reason, despite the fact that going east actually leads me home). Just before the border with Ohio, I left the interstate. Mostly, I left the interstate because I saw an enormous fireworks superstore and I wanted to go there and stock up on real fireworks, but for some reason the only exit off the interstate to this palace of pyrotechnics is westbound. This makes no sense at all, because it is in Ohio that we are limited to buying only things that release colored smoke - not very exciting. Anyway, as I started to get all twisted about in a maze of endless county roads and cornfields, I realized that I was almost to US-35, which I knew would take me across Ohio.

I've taken parts of US-35 before; the second time I moved to Ohio, Google Maps (before I broke up with them) recommended that as the quickest, easiest route to traverse Ohio. I will say this right now: It is not. It is still faster to take the interstate to Columbus, then take US-33 southeast to Athens. However, US-35 doesn't take that much longer, and although there is a stretch composed mainly of 35-mph curves where you are always stuck behind a tractor, it still fits within my adventure philosophy.

And what a beautiful drive it was! Especially after spending a few days in the Indy metropolis, my whole body relaxed in relief as I became surrounded by green fields everywhere, and upon stopping to get a drink of water at a little gas station outside Chillicothe (claim to fame: the first and third capital of Ohio), realized that I didn't have to lock my car up tight for the two minutes I'd be inside. I like country living for reasons like that.

I tried to check out a museum outside Chillicothe, but since it was a Sunday morning, it was closed. (Why more people don't go on adventure road trips at 7am on Sundays is beyond me.) I did get to check out a beautiful graveyard, though, one of countless which dot rural southern Ohio.

Just past Chillicothe, I met up with my old friend US-50 (seriously, I'm still totally planning to do an adventure where I take US-50 from coast to coast!), which led me back into Athens as the sun shone brightly on yet another perfect Appalachian summer day.

Mileage for the weekend: 528.6

Flashback: August 13, 2008

The day I first saw Athens:

day 5: 8/13/08 athens, oh
athens is beautiful. driving here was a thing of beauty, a long stretch through the woods that was exactly the sigh of relief i needed. driving from columbus to athens is like driving from vancouver to corvallis would be if there was no I-5 or portland or salem in the way. that makes it seem like it would be a long drive, but it's amazing. coasting through little valleys and hills covered in lush green trees. i think it's more green and beautiful than oregon. that could be three days of plains states speaking, but i was blown away nonetheless. the hills looked like they were covered in fresh broccoli, billowing dark green foliage as far as the eye could see. i passed more signs for state parks, national parks, and national forests than i did for towns. as i drove, it grew dark and the moon rose and sharpened in white contrast. almost a full moon, shining down on the forests and the smooth, winding road. it was the best end possible to the past few days.

i decided that, regardless of the additional fee for being under 25, it would be worth it to rent a car in columbus. there were a series of minor disasters and misunderstandings. for instance, when you type "columbus airport" into google maps, it gives you rickenbacker international airport, which if you had never ever been to columbus would sound like the right airport. it's not. it's a tiny shipping airport way south of town. port columbus international airport is the main one, which is on the northeast outskirt of town, and it does not even come up on google maps. luckily we made it there, but after too much arguing and melting down and driving way the wrong way just for no good reason. also it was right about dinner time and suddenly my blood sugar went all over so i was freaking out as well as being tired and extremely hungry all of a sudden and... anyway. no fun. then there was another series of obstacles once we got to the real columbus airport, the kind you would probably see in the series-of-misadventures buddy flick that you painfully laugh at. yeah. backing a penske truck out of a parking garage in one of the midwest's larger airports. freaking sweet. but then, finally, success! it took about five minutes total to do all the stuff to get the car, a 2008 corolla. ohhh, just so relaxing. so wonderful and refreshing. an hour and a half to myself for the first time in five days or longer, a new car with a smooth, compact ride, low to the ground and with easy acceleration, and finally, finally on the road to athens.

and we're here! finally! after all my months of planning and looking up athens online and learning ohio facts on wikipedia, and after days of driving and $200 gas fill-ups and wrangling with a 16-foot moving truck, we are here. no more long days of driving. tomorrow we only have to drive about five minutes to our new apartment.

we finally are in a cheap motel, which explains why the internet isn't working and my computer only plugs into the one grounded outlet. and we had to drive around athens searching for it, because it recently changed its name and had no appropriate signs, and we were greeted by a balding indian man and smells of microwaved curry wafting in from the back. but it only cost $43, so i'm satisfied. and we did get to drive through most of the main road of athens while semi-lost, stopping at the kroger to look in a phone book (not helpful, due to recent name change) and buy ohio-produced cheap wine and various snacks. i do wish the day had gone so we'd gotten here earlier, because now all i want to do is explore. but that's what the next three days are for!

i still need to write about day 4: marengo, il, but that's several more paragraphs in itself. featuring: our first directional mix-up (you are not our friend, quad-city, iowa/illinois), crossing the mississippi, meeting all of chris' grandmas and many haaks, experiencing a bit of chicago neighborhoods/driving, drinking cheap wine and watching the olympics, and farm-fresh corn. the end!

Nelsonville: Yes, it is a real place!

After my grand mini-adventure last weekend to West Virginia I have had a peaceful week full of even tinier mini-adventures. More than anything, I've been trying to work on the idea that Ohio is an adventure, to truly savor the things in my daily life that are wonderful and unique and exciting.

For example, this Monday I wanted to check a particular book out from the library (I told you, always adventure armed with plenty of literature!). The Athens branch library is closed on Mondays, but the library in Nelsonville is open on Mondays. Now, for those of you following along from afar, Nelsonville is the name of the closest city to Athens. (In Ohio, everything 5,000+ is classified as a city; otherwise, it is a village. It's really quite darling to hear reports of "The Village of Chauncey" - except for, in that example, the village leadership of Chauncey is always in some sort of less-than-darling squabble.)

Anyway, I get a little bit of a kick out of the fact that there is a town called Nelsonville. When I was younger, we would pretend that our house was called Nelsonville, and write letters to each other at "1 Bedroom St, Nelsonville," and so on. But, then again, we had a very unique household.

Nelsonville, Ohio, isn't a large town, and apparently it's a Preserve America City. It's certainly gorgeous, however. It's about a thirteen-minute drive from Athens through some slight hills, a bit of countryside, a dash of road construction, and national forest. The Wayne National Forest has a park ranger's office there, and although typically I zoom past it en route to Nelsonville or Columbus, this time I stopped and pretended to be a tourist, gathering maps and looking intently at all of the historical displays set up. Then I continued up the road, under the clear blue sky filled with puffy clouds, as has so often been the case this summer. The road, in this case, is US-33, which is pretty much the only conduit between Athens and Columbus - and beyond, in most cases. Returning home from a trip, the moment I get on 33 just south of Columbus a great sense of relief always washes over me. It's kind of neat to live in a town isn't accessible by interstate. Maybe that's just me . . .

I spent the morning leisurely strolling around the central square of town. Nelsonville has a higher-than-average assortment of antique shops and art galleries. I found a newspaper and read it in the grassy central square while waiting for the library to open. After checking out my book (and plenty of browsing!) I nestled myself in another park and read for the rest of the morning as the sun warmed my back and small groups of people filtered nearby. It was pretty idyllic.


The sky has been almost unreal this summer. I feel like in that picture the sky is almost too blue to be true!

After I grew tired of reading, I went for a Nelsonville run. This is pretty much the same as an Athens run; the bike path which I so frequently tread runs all the way to Nelsonville - if I ever, in some fit of madness, talk myself into doing the full Athens marathon, I would run to Nelsonville and back on the bike path. Since I am not quite that insane (yet), I had never run on the part of the path that traces along the Hocking River on Nelsonville's outskirts. And it was beautiful. I found myself wishing I had my camera. Cliff outcroppings jutted through hillsides densely packed with trees. Every now and again, I'd come across a sturdy bridge spanning some tiny offshoot which ultimately led back to the Hocking. I passed many bicycle commuters, a family out for a bike ride, and a caregiver on a walk with two developmentally disabled adults. Otherwise, in the course of my 4.5-mile run, I saw no buildings, vehicles, or other signs of civilized life. It was almost like hiking! I also somehow neglected to see the first mile marker, so while I thought I was running about 3 miles and change, I actually wound up running 4 and a lot of change! Who knew!

Anyway, this morning I went on a jog with a friend and I did remember to bring my camera. We ran on winding County Road 20, which takes the daily adventurer out to Strouds Run State Park for some swimming and hiking. We didn't quite make it that far today, and my camera
obediently died after I snapped only a few photos of our trek, but the woods were alive today. A small stream trickled through the woods, heading who knows where - into a fantasy story, perhaps.


That's all for today!

Flashback: August 10, 2008

I am going to keep re-posting my adventure notes from my first cross-country roadtrip adventure, at least for now. It's been interesting reading them, three years later, and musing upon the ways I've grown and changed, but also exulting in the journeys I've taken and the things I discovered and noticed even then. Driving across the country in a moving truck is a decidedly different adventure than driving around the country in my car just because I feel like it, and I can definitely sense that stressful energy while reading these older posts. However, in the name of posterity, and because of how significant this maiden voyage was in my life, I will continue the trip down memory lane (how many metaphors about travel can I squeeze into one sentence? Just try me!). I am so happy that this adventure brought me here so that I can continue to have more and more adventures!

Oh, yes. And I am planning a few adventures for the coming weeks, so you will soon get more current updates from your adventuress!

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day 2: cheyenne, wy

[10 Aug 2008|07:22pm]

i try not to judge, but cheyenne is not the most beautiful of towns. of course, this is after a full day of driving through the mostly-barren south-mid-west? i don't know the name of the region we're in, technically. but it's all mostly the same looking. the occasional truck stop or gas station or, rarer, rest area or small town, speckled throughout dry, rocky terrain, some tumbleweeds, etc. not much else. we had lunch at the first rest stop on I-80, just before we hit wyoming, and that was somewhat pretty. large reddish rock formations and clear blue skies. the part of the rockies i remember from montana. speaking of which, crossing the rockies was rather underwhelming. i guess we crossed at a less, well, rocky spot, but it was mostly an hour of slight but constant uphill and then suddenly, a sign saying "summit of the continental divide"! like they say in dumb and dumber, these mountains aren't very rocky! also, i decided that whoever named the "rocky mountains" could have come up with a more descriptive term. i mean, um, yes, mountains are rocky. that's nice. i slept soundly last night, so that was extremely lovely. we got up early and had continental breakfast. it's silly how staying at a motel that charges $20 more than listed is all worth it because they offer about three bucks' worth of breakfast. but it was still nice, though i wished i had soymilk for coffee and cereal. then i drove the whole way. we crossed into utah, where they felt like having eight miles of road construction where there was only one lane at a time, over and over again. stopped to go to the bathroom at a gas station, because both utah and wyoming are pretty short on rest areas, like i remembered from drum corps. filled up gas in ogden because we weren't sure when we could next. after ogden we switched onto I-80 and this is a highlight BECAUSE.... I-84 dead-ends into I-80, which means that we traveled the entire length of I-84 on this trip! we had a high-five in the cab about that. the other highlight of the day is that we are STILL following the oregon trail exactly. in reverse. we keep crossing rivers that i remember from the game. that's pretty sweet. we also found several rock stations in wyoming, all of which have the same call numbers as eugene radio stations. and we discovered the university of wyoming. it's in laramie! who knew! we asked the front desk lady if there was a store nearby and she pretty much looked at me like i was crazy. too bad for her, it's 2008 and i can search on google maps, and i found several grocery stores that only took a little bit of driving through town and had ample parking. take that, front desk lady! we went to safeway and i bought a little thing of soy milk, and more capri sun to drink with lunch, and razors since i left mine in oregon because i want to be able to get on the plane. but my legs are extremely hairy. we walked from safeway to find food, and it was thoroughly depressing. walked past a lot of scary looking bars and men in trucks drinking crown royal and honking at pedestrians. i had another gift-card subway sandwich and subway is doing a peel-off game similar to the old mcdonald's monopoly games, and i won another subway sandwich! so hurrah! double free! then we were going to go to sonic but decided that sonic is pretty sketch if you're not in your car. the inside reminded me of a bus station bathroom. so we went to a place called taco john's/good times which was kind of like carl's jr/the green burrito. and walked back.

we are resting now. we stopped driving a little early today because the next real place we could stay was three hours farther, including a time change, so that would make at least four hours later we'd be getting in, and that would have made it hard to get up and have a productive day in the morning. tomorrow is cheyenne to des moines! des moines is about five hours from chicago so the next day we can get up in the morning and drive to chicago. woot!

Flashback: August 9, 2008

Once upon a time, I got in a moving truck and drove across the country to move to Ohio. Exactly three years ago today was the day that (my ex and) I departed Eugene for the first of what would be many cross-country treks. Who knew I would love driving across the country so much? Who knew I would love Athens so much? Anyway, here it is, three years later, and the date August 9 always stirs some excitement in me. Due to a work commitment, after moving our belongings to Ohio, I flew back to Oregon, where I stayed for two months more before driving out in the ol' adventure-mobile, so I didn't officially start living in Athens until October, but I still kind of count August as my Athens-Anniversary.

This trip took place before I had this fabulous adventure blog, but I did have a livejournal (long since neglected), and naturally, I wrote a post every night of our journey - it was an adventure, after all! I thought I would re-post it for posterity today. It's interesting to look back and see how my observations and writing style have changed in just the last three years exactly. Enjoy!

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day 1: twin falls, id

[09 Aug 2008|08:28pm]

it's actually 9:28 here because my computer still thinks i'm on the west coast. I slept horribly last night. rather, when i did sleep, i slept fine, but in the 7 1/2 hours we were in our makeshift bed on the floor, i was probably asleep for three of them. half the time too excited about moving to sleep, the other half too nervous, worrying about driving, crashing, the truck, our stuff getting stolen, etc. the goal was to leave at 6 am. we pulled away from the apartment at 1840 agate for the last time at 6:15, so that's really not bad at all. chris went straight to i-5 because he didn't want to deal with city streets while i dropped off the keys at jennings and got coffee and then caught up with him. it was like a math problem; if chris leaves at 6:15 and goes 55 mph, and sarah leaves at 6:30 and goes 65 mph, when will they meet? anyway, we found brennan (her apartment was actually only 4 blocks away from erin's first portland apartment) where i parallel parked like a champ and gave many needed hugs and then we were off! by the time we got out of there it was nine-ish, but no big loss. it turns out that I-84 basically follows the oregon trail. for like, its entirety. we drove along the columbia for quite a ways, and then it kind of cuts off the top corner of oregon through baker city and other such awesome places into idaho. chris was noticing a lot of oregon trail visitor center signs, and i kept noticing place names that i recognized from the game, so we looked on the map of the u.s., and sure enough, it follows it at least into utah. we had pb&j for lunch at a windy rest stop along 84, then stopped for gas in pendleton. one fill-up used all of chris' arco gift card and then some. then we switched so i could drive. scary!! but really, not that bad once i got used to it. the whole time i'd been picturing the gigantic OMB penskes, and this is much smaller. after pendleton, though, you start getting into the high desert, so there are lots of windy hills that go up and down and round and round. i spent a long time yelling at them, but it didn't help. i learned about how every little motion is amplified in a truck, so even semi-slamming on the brakes makes you swerve. boo. there was lots of road construction once we got into idaho, and that was equally scary. we stopped for dinner at subway (again, free with a gift card!) just past boise. at one point, we'd hoped to hit ogden the first day. that's about 4-5ish hours past boise, and we'd forgotten to account for losing an hour into mountain time, so we settled for twin falls, about two hours farther. it's actually in jerome, where wade from my omb section was from, but it has a hot tub. that was the most amazing feeling i've felt in forever. really. there are two other groups from oregon here, and a kid and dad from colorado driving him out to u of o. exciting for everyone! our goal for tomorrow is cheyenne, which should be no biggie, except for we have to cross the rockies all over the place tomorrow. but i'm driving first becasue i'm perkier in the morning, which means chris will get the rockies. so i'm extremely tired. riding/driving in a truck is exhausting. even so, it didn't feel like it took that long. we did a few mad libs and had some team-crossword action. the truck has no tape player, but yesterday we bought battery-operated speakers at radio shack, so we can listen to cd's or ipod, for the more technically advanced of us. we're getting up at 5:45 tomorrow. the motel starts serving continental breakfast at six, so we'll eat it and then roll out. when we were stopped for dinner, i thought about grabbing a small carton of soymilk at albertsons but figured i could get it later. except we're actually about five miles outside of twin falls right by a truck stop, so no soymilk. oh well. i think in the morning i'll call the days inn in cheyenne and make a reservation, because we liked it here. and stuff got filled up tonight, although it was a saturday so who knows about tomorrow. whew. unwind. today was a good day. some grumpiness in the morning, and it's weird to be leaving, but not really leaving. i am getting excited for the fall (hopefully for the right reasons) and i know it will go by just as fast as it can, and then i can come out. another time that i got so caught up in minor stresses that i downplayed the whole transition and only now am i realizing, whoa. i'm moving to ohio. the midwest. ohio. it's pretty wild. i'm excited. i'm more excited now than i have been. it's really happening now. even through all the planning, even yesterday, even this morning in eugene and portland, it didn't really feel like it was happening. but now it is. yay!

A little day in West Virginia

Hello, blog-o-verse! (not just a blogosphere anymore, it's the whole universe!)

I have been very busy this summer having Ohio adventures, the Americorps sort and working-for-a-nonprofit sort and drinking-wine-in-the-yard-with-friends sort, but that is a different story altogether (and you can learn about some of it, though not so much the wine-drinking part, right over here at my other other blog).

Anyway, today I went on an adventure that is more reminiscent of adventures past. I had some grandiose plans to make it even a little larger in scale, but that was not to be this weekend, and that's okay.

I am in a dear friend's wedding in a few months, and her wedding shower was today, in Rainelle, West Virginia, which is roughly east and a little south of Charleston - an area of our beautiful, mountainous neighbor I had yet to really explore. Naturally, in accordance with adventure rules, I tried to take as much of the trip on non-interstate and non-previously-Sarah-traveled roads!

After a stop at the Athens library to load up on CDs and books (not that I would need them while driving, but the library is closed on Sundays and Mondays and I read all the books I already had, plus who knows when you'll get a chance to sit and quietly enjoy a book while adventuring!), I headed southeast out of Athens on US-33. I know I've kvetched about this before, but for some reason Ohio can't figure it out that odd-numbered highways run north-south. ALWAYS. Calling a highway "US-33 East" is like saying "My mom put himself to bed." It just does not work. (And my apologies to independently-gendered people; it's just hard to find comparable examples!)

Anyway. Whatever. I headed in a southeasterly direction on US-33 East, which led me through comfortably rolling farmland and into Meigs County (county seat: Pomeroy, OH, pop. 1,966). Pomeroy is a charming old river town that has a charming main street and a charming amphitheater right along the legendary Ohio River. But today I did not drive through Pomeroy; instead, just north of town, I veered off onto Ohio State Route 7. OH-7 runs, I don't know, south or west at this point, and again I fail to keep up with Ohio's numbering system. Regardless, I found myself heading effectively west. OH-7 South and OH-124 West were running concurrently at this point.

As it turns out, Rainelle, West Virginia, is southeast of Athens, Ohio, and yet I drove west! Consultation with my atlas (and Google Maps, in a rare moment of accuracy) gave me the idea that, rather than staying on US-33 and taking it directly to I-77, I should try a more circuitous route, which somehow would add only 15 or so miles to my journey. Let's do it!

So, SR-7 took me through a spot of rain and more green, rolling farmland that gave way increasingly to all manner of processing and manufacturing plants - primarily coal - the nearer I got to the river. At Gallipolis (yes, the name of a real town, one of the biggest in the area actually), I found US-35 to cross the Ohio River and head back semi-eastward toward my destination. US-35 soared over the river as two bridges rose before me and the Ohio rushed on. I picked up speed upon entering West Virginia (faster speed limits, and they orient their highways correctly, too, as the highway magically turned from US-35E to US-35S!) and before I knew it I was on I-64 headed straight into Charleston, the Mountain State's historic capital.

I encountered a little bit of a traffic delay here, thanks to an accident blocking two lanes several exits ahead, but, hey - this is why a good adventurer stops at the library before leaving town! I knocked it into neutral (holding the clutch in indefinitely makes your leg sore! especially if you ran five miles yesterday!) and cracked open my newly acquired short story collection.

Soon enough, sadly for my literary pursuits, traffic unsnarled itself. After making it through Charleston (where I-64 and I-77 merge for a bit), I found US-60, also known as the Midland Trail, and headed deeper and deeper into the mountains.

At this point, I was feeling pressed for time (and fighting bits of rain), so I didn't take as much time to revel in the spectacular scenery. I did, however, stop for gas in Belle, West Virginia (proudly finding a super-off-the-beaten-path 7-Eleven). My conversation with the cashier went like this:
Me: Do y'all have a restroom?
Cashier (looking up from a conversation with several locals): You're from out of town, aren't you?
She smiled obligingly as she led me down a dingy hallway to a door marked "Employees Only" and, lo and behold, a restroom which apparently anyone who's from in town knows how to find. Hey, I was proud that I fluently said "y'all," so you take what you can get.

Several hours later, after the wedding shower, I took my time heading back. I had considered camping or hiking somewhere along the way (and there were many locations, including an Appalachian string band festival only about 15 minutes away that a few friends were at) but impending rain and lingering exhaustion from my summer of saving the world (or trying my darnedest) compelled me to just turn the starship toward home.

Regardless, I stopped frequently to gawk at the beautiful scenery around me. Rainelle is about 75 miles east-ish of Charleston, and in those 75 miles one can find several parks, outlooks, rivers, etc. At Hawk's Nest State Park, you can look over an upper part of the New River Gorge, which is actually the oldest river in the eastern U.S. (yeah, I know) as well as being one of the deepest gorges, and just insanely beautiful. The New River itself combines with the Gauley River into the Kanawha, which flows right into Charleston.



Man oh man is the Kanawha beautiful there at its origin. A light mist covered blue and green mountains rising above its banks. The water shimmered perfectly flat and clear, reflecting the many-tiered mountains and the puffy clouds in the sky above.



The rain held off during my entire journey back, so I kept the windows down and breathed in the piney scent. The sun, still relatively high in the sky (thank you, summer) glinted through trees and off cliff-sides. Mountain Stage, one of my favorite NPR shows, came on the radio, and I was provided the perfect soundtrack of bluegrass and Americana for my exploration through the trees and hills.

Did I mention that I love West Virginia? Don't make it the butt of any yokel jokes until you've spent a day winding your way through the hills and gaping at its natural beauty. Just sayin'.

The sun was mercifully slow to set, and rays hued with pink reflected through the gray clouds that darkened as I traveled northward. I opted for the interstate north out of Charleston, although I'm honestly not sure whether that is faster than the westward-facing route I took through Gallipolis earlier in the day. Oh well, now it's more of a round trip.

I was pretty tired at the beginning of the day, but through most of the drive back I enjoyed the energy and enthusiasm I experienced through much of my cross-country adventure this winter. Good; I was afraid I was getting old, or something.

One of my greatest challenges this summer has been to refrain from comparing it to last summer, the Summer Of Adventures. Not every summer can be the summer of adventures; everything is an adventure, but sometimes the adventures we need are different. I needed the change and growth I experienced last summer, fall, and winter, and I don't need that same growth again this summer. It's just been a little trickier figuring out exactly what I do need this summer. Mostly, I just have to remind myself that not every summer is the Summer Of something, and that sometimes it's okay to just be, to relax and reap the rewards of all your hard work. So far this has been the summer of reading and the summer of dresses and the summer of wine and the summer of cooking and the summer of Athens adventures.

And that's another important thing to remember, an idea I mused upon often as I drove out to my summer job, twenty minutes through sparse countryside, once farmland but now merely dotted with barns and interspersed with tin shacks, into and out of tiny, pastoral, slice-of-Americana-past villages: Ohio is still an adventure for me. I've lived here nearly three years, which is neither a long nor short period of time, but I suspect that no matter how long I live in Athens, just the daily ins and outs, the little moments and the bigger ones, will continue to inspire me with a little bit of that adventure feeling. Every now and again I need to step back and remember: Ohio is still an adventure.

Mileage for the day: 332.8