I'll meet you in Chicago

An entire lifetime has passed in the ten years since I first started this blog. In the summer of 2011 I was planning a ridiculous, outlandish trip; I had a husband of 20 years and a beautiful, brilliant daughter that I was desperately (and very deliberately) trying to turn into an idealized version of the person I had always wanted to be. I had no idea what depression really was, but I had definitely been hovering around the edges of restless discontent for quite a while. We took that crazy trip, but, even crazier than that, we came home and...everything returned to normal. Life wasn't better - or worse - right away. Baylie didn't escape any of the normal difficulties of being a teenager, in fact many of the ordinary problems came with an extra serving of intensity that made a few of those years truly terrifying. Shawn and I didn't escape marital boredom, typical stresses, or the sad reality of infidelity. I dragged my family around the world to escape a malaise I could feel closing in on us from out there in the future, but it didn't work. That tidal wave of unexpected, and yet also totally predictable, unhappiness knocked our feet right out from under us, tumbled us against the rocks, and left us gasping for breath on the shore.

Everything has changed in the past ten years, except one thing. My need to escape to somewhere new with the travel partner I made from scratch. I realize that travel is something many people are still not considering, but we are choosing to hit the road. Ten days to reconnect with my bird that left the nest and flew away. Road-side stands and scenic viewpoints, playlists and pit-stops, rest areas and car snacks, historic markers and natural landmarks; it still feels like that is where life is waiting.

I am so excited to meet up with my favorite traveler at a layover in Chicago, then we are on to Niagara Falls. I figure this blog will have an audience I can count on one hand (hi mom), but it makes for a great way to record memories for myself. I can't even guess how many times I have clicked back through it over the years. So I'm going to take up a little space on the internet with my pictures and posts, even if no one ever looks at it but me.