The Long Drive
So, we get in the cars at ridiculous o'clock in the morning and we start the long process of driving from Iowa to Upstate New York. The bulk of my belongings are stuffed into the back of the car I'm buying from my sister (one that hopefully won't get stuck in the Buffalo snow) and into the back of my Mother's car.
It is around seven o'clock in the morning and we're making good time. I am listening to a CD of music made popular whilst I was living in the UK, singing along and enjoying the early part of the drive. Dream Catch Me by Newton Faulkner comes on the CD and I belt it out (because everyone is Diana Ross in their car.)
As we begin to go cross the Mississippi in Illinois, I have this thought: I'm leaving Iowa. And, this time it actually feels real. I'm leaving home and going someplace where I'm expected to be on the top of my game and act like an adult. I'm going some place where I not only have a room of my own, but a whole one bedroom flat of my own. Of course, I lose it. I'm singing and crying and driving across this immense bridge over a slightly swollen Mississippi.
But, then I have to laugh. As I'm having this immense, "I'm leaving" moment on the road to Buffalo, I'm being passed by a Good Ol' Boy in a rusty Ford pickup truck doing upwards of 80 miles an hour (on a bridge) with a confederate flag in back window. "Yup," I think, "I won't miss that in New York."
