Midwest Heat

What a day!

I started it out with a moist chest, wet feet and a damp sleeping bag.

The birds chirped my eyes open with their beautiful songs, counteracting the abysmal gloom left over from the nights fiasco.

From Erie, we zipped down the 90W.

Evelyn had a yearning to explore “the city” of Chicago, and “eat at a restaurant.”  After spending nine months in the nice, quiet and peaceful mountains in upstate New York, I could only look at her, with angst, and offer her an assortment of tree nuts and dried fruits that we stocked up on; hoping to evade this taxing urge of hers.

I almost gave in, until we hit rush hour traffic.  At that point, we were both over it.

I instantly noticed a headache and my blood pressure, I imagine, was through the SUV roof! How are we going to survive two months in L.A.?

We pulled into to our campsite just before sundown, with cloud sweat beginning to drip on us.  We hustled to construct the tent while being bugged by those pesky mosquitoes.

12 hours of fun had just begun.

A wind that was unnoticeable if you were standing in the open air, was making our tent do the Harlem shake.  Once we got it up, I was making little tweaks, to try and alleviate the pestering drips that would pull us out of our slumber.  Eventually, I gave in and turned in.  Thankfully, our bags kept us warm while we were soaked.

Waking up in a puddle of water is no fun.

After getting things together, we had to figure out how to dry multiple things.

Evelyn felt that the dryer, on delicate/low/no heat could be a viable option.  We approach the laundry room and notice that the dryer only operates on normal (hot, hot heat).  Naturally and logically, there were some reservations.  Plastic doesn’t do so well in these types of situations.

I don’t do so well in these types of situations.

She doesn’t do so well in these types of situations.

A “discussion” ensued.

Like the plastic, heat can take its toll on us; like all of the toll roads that we passed through, as well.  But we kept it all together and were listening to some Putumayo collections, taking in the hypnotizing, repetitive landscape that surrounded us.

Courtney, if you’re reading this, we will send you a replacement tent as soon as we touch base in Cali!

I was expecting these types of intimacy and friction during this road trip.  It was inevitable after a busy year, where it seemed like we hardly saw each other.  It was good to know that we still have the fire to “discuss” things out and stand for our convictions; as opposed to just trying to bury it and let it fester.

Well, we’re about to leave our third KOA here in Jackson, Minnesota.  We need to pack up our new tent, selected by, hot hands, Evelyn.

I look forward to the rest of this trip and our summer together.