The Seventh Inning Stretch

On Thursday morning, when I pulled into the FDR North on my way out of Manhattan, my odometer clicked to ‘100’ – I had officially logged my first 100 miles on my new car. It’s Sunday evening, and my odometer now reads ‘1561' miles. Just another 200+ miles to go. It’s been a sweet ride.

I have inadvertently become a storm chaser, or maybe I should say a storm runner, as in running away from tornados, gusty winds and lighting storms that have plagued Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota. It’s made for some interesting driving for this not-terribly-experienced driver, listening to the National Weather Service make repeated emergency announcements for tornado watches, and wondering what in the world you are supposed to freakin’ do if you actually saw one.

I made good time on my first two days, landing up in the town of Rockford in northern Illinois on Friday evening. So I gave myself a day off on Saturday, by joining a local Wisconsin group for National Trails Day. As members of the Ice Age Park & Trail Foundation, they were making an effort to have volunteers and hikers walk every inch of this 1,000-mile trail on that single day. It was good to get off the Interstate and walk 10 miles with a friendly group of locals, even if they were just a little puzzled how this visitor landed up in their midst.

Driving through Minnesota is a horizon-expanding experience – quite literally. It’s all sky. Who needs television here … spoken like a true non-resident, of course! I did my first touristy thing today by visiting the Pipestone National Monument, a tiny little place where they start the A/V presentation when you are ready and settled in (you know, because you’re the only one who seems vaguely interested). Turned out that I stumbled on a stop that is popular among RV-ers, all of whom were behind schedule, and I’d be willing to bet they were either coming from or were going to visit the world’s largest twine ball in Darwin, MN.

My first solo roadtrip is coming to a close. And already I know this isn’t going to be my last. Life’s too short to do this just once.