Journey of a Lifetime

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Driving across the country is something that I have always wanted to do, and now that I have accomplished it, I can say that it was so much different than I thought that it would be. Maybe it was because I was driving with all of my earthly possessions in a moving van, or that I was doing it with my Dad, and getting some really good father and son bonding time, but whatever it was it changed me. The first day we spent driving through the high mountain desert of the Rockies in Wyoming. One thing that you learn from driving across the country is that in America everything is used, in the High Mountain Desert there were great expanses on Windmill farms. Wow that is a sight to see, as you come over a plateau and see 25-30 huge windmills is an impressive sight to say the least, especially when they are the only man made structures on the landscape.

If there was one state that I wasn’t to excited about crossing that was Nebraska, but I have to say that if there was one state that made an impact on me, it was Nebraska. Just to see how everything in Nebraska was farmed was amazing, you really get a sense of the industry that America has when driving through Nebraska.

On Friday My Dad and I tried to see the Royals play in Kansas city, but we couldn’t find a place to park the truck, and as it turns out we chose the one day in the season when the Kansas City Royals sold out.

On Saturday I got to see something that I have always wanted to see, Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Since I was a little kid I have loved the Cardinals, and seeing Busch Stadium was like seeing my Graceland. Seeing it brought back to my memory a thousand boyhood memories of playing baseball and dreaming about playing in the Majors. And even though I didn’t get to see a game, I could still imagine how magical it would be to see a game there on an August night, watching Pujols and the Boys hopefully kicking the Crap out of the Cubs.

On Saturday we made it through Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, and half way through Tennessee. Illinois, and Kentucky were cool, and so were the great rivers that we saw in Missouri, but Tennessee was by far the prettiest state. It really looked like a rainforest all over. To bad around every corner I could just see the movie Deliverance taking place.

On Sunday we made our way through the rest of Tennessee, and to Columbia, South Carolina. The best part about this cross country trip was the fact that I got to do it with my Dad. I think that it is every boys dream to be able to do something like that with their Dad, something that years down the road a son will be able to look back and say this was the defining moment in the Father/Son relationship. For me that was this trip, and I will be able to look back on those 4 days as a defining moment in my Life.