After spending my first night in Council Bluffs, IA, a city whose Fazoli’s was so pokey about sending someone to the counter to take my order that they gave me extra breadsticks without my saying anything, I arrived in Arvada, CO in the late afternoon of my second day. Arvada is home to my friend, Andrea, whom I met in Peace Corps. It was so good to catch up with her and meet her friend Hidde. I envy his life experiences in travel. He’s worked on a kibbutz in Israel, lived in Italy and Indonesia, traveled tons of places and speaks four or five languages. Nice guy. And not the first person to ask me if I’m Mormon since I don’t drink coffee or tea. I joked with Andrea later that I sometimes feel I have a very childish palate when it comes to beverages since I don’t drink many “adult” things like beer, wine, or coffee. But I have a very adult food palate since I eat things like Brussels sprouts and spinach of my own volition.
I finally made it to Wendover, UT, the border town with casinos just on the other side of the state line with just enough time to check into my hotel and grab some dinner before going to bed. I finished my drive the next day and arrived at my old stomping grounds, Carson City, around 2pm. It was a little surreal to navigate the streets of Reno and Carson again. Not much has changed, although it was heartbreaking to see the old Border’s turned into one of those temporary Halloween shops.
I spent that evening and the next at my friend, Amy’s. We used to teach at DHS together. I made friends with her cat while finishing up my Power Point presentation for school the next day. Monday, I presented to two world history classes taught by a new teacher at DHS. That evening Amy, her boyfriend, Ed, and I went to Ming’s for sushi. Quite serendipitously we ran into my old BFF Michele, who also teaches at Dayton. So we all ate and talked together and it was absolutely wonderful. Good food, good conversation, good people.
The next day, I presented to three of my friend, Rob’s, history classes. We coached track together at DHS and I had emailed back and forth with his classes last year as part of the World Wise School program. It was so fun presenting to students. First of all, I love public speaking in general. But it was also so rewarding to teach kids about Turkmenistan and hear them ask good questions. The school nurse sat in on one of the classes because she served in the Peace Corps and it was good to chat with her afterward too. I saw a lot of old colleagues and chatted and showed off my scrapbook. I wish I had had a couple more days to hang out, but I was on a time crunch with a goal of getting back to Andrea’s for Halloween, so I headed back east as soon as school was over.
Well, the next day I headed out but not before taking in a Leonardo DaVinci exhibit in Denver that displayed replicas of machines he designed. I’m reading a book right now called How to Think Like Leonardo DaVinci so it was a timely exhibit for me.
The rest of my trip home was a little less rushed. I took one more day coming home than going out and stopped at a couple museums along the way: the Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA) in Kearney and the Putnam Museum in Davenport, IA. The MONA is free, so worth a look if you find yourself on a cross-country I-80 trip with a need to get out of the car and stretch for a bit. The Putnam is also a decent way to kill some time for only $7 admission. They had a special exhibit on animation with original cels from Disney movies and some other animation like Looney Tunes. The Putnam is like a smaller version of Chicago’s Field Museum or Museum of Science and Industry with interactive things for kids.
I arrived home tired and glad to be home, but definitely glad I went and anticipating my next road trip. There’s a lot of the States I want to see and a lot of friends I’ve yet to visit.