I haven't been anywhere for a while, and I certainly haven't packed my 2 weeks worth of personal belongings into the trunk of a car and hit the road for a very long time. Once upon a time, when I was someone I barely remember, I loaded a tiny orange Ford Fiesta, the odometer bespoke of 300,000 miles worth of endeavors before I got behind the wheel. with every item my newly married self owned. My new husband and I drove from Minnesota to Arizona that sun baked August. That trip introduced me to my America. We sat in a traffic jam in the middle of of a sheer rock wall in Utah, listening to the Joshua Tree on cassette and contemplating a glorious future. We saw families packed into station wagons and it seemed romantic that someday, in the too distant to really imagine it future, it could be us. I swear I saw the face of God in a sunrise across the barren desert backdrop, and felt nothing but bliss in that little Fiesta that we push started almost 2000 miles to find our new home.
We took the short route back home to Minnesota less them a month later. Who moves to Arizona in August but young fools in love with the idea of a desert?
We took the short route back home to Minnesota less them a month later. Who moves to Arizona in August but young fools in love with the idea of a desert?
I was pregnant within the year and our first anniversay was spent sleeping in a military sleeping bag on the floor of a cockroach infested apartment that was walking distance to the gates of the army base in Colorado. I found God's Country about the same time that I lost faith in most everything. I found myself again in the blue eyes of a baby that I had when I was but a babe myself.
It is 25 years later, and I am packing my bags to go and visit that beautiful blue eyed girl that is off on her own adventure now, but still humbles my heart when I look into her eyes and remember what once was.
