Hello my readers,
I have made my grand return to my home, my city, my coast. I have been home for a few days, finally got to see the mets live and watched them lose to the Braves after this win only days before. And, although we have a famous rivalry, a mets game is always so friendly that I just enjoyed being there. I hope to go to a busier, non post-poned game where everyone will sing the rest of Lindor's song (everyone loves a girl dad). If they trade Lindor I will cry and I hope Mr. Met sees this. I will cry.
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its here!!
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Anyways, here's a bit of a trip report, mainly of my favorite state we were in, Nebraska. I made The Boyfriend drive all the way up to Nebraska because of
Dear America. One of my favorites,
Accross the Wide and Lonesome Prairie, includes the great Badlands landmark, Chimney Rock. For some reason, I really wanted to go. The Oregon trail is one of my favorite historical eras, like Versailles, and similar to Versailles, I do not actually want to experience it and I am not worshipping the participants. I think anyone who did the Trail was crazy, especially if they took their childrens accross it. I see it as honestly the start one of the biggest ecological disasters in American history (maybe after Columbus's arrival) and a horrible start to mass western expnsion and cultural erasure. Anyways, I am obsessed with it partically because exploration is something that I love to read about and because it sounds like pure torture as someone who loves her objects. The worst part of any Trail story is when the wagon breaks and everything must be left behind, especially someones cabinet or favorite chair.
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the loss since Hattie was here
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Chimney Rock is one of the landmarks along the way. It is featured in the original
Oregon Trail game in beautiful
four color pixel art. It has lost some feet since the mid 1800s but it's still impressice and identifiable on the horizon when you view it from Scott's Bluff.
The Oregon Trail does not seem to have the same star power in the American mythos like the Mayflower or the Civil War, which may be a good thing. I think this allows us to be more nuanced about it without the push back from the Daughters of the Revolution or the Daughter of the Confederacy. I may be wrong, and I believe any historical event in which the brave and strong white americans are often well defended from any sort of percieved attack. Lewis and Clark's Expedition (who's wikipedia page I read like an audio book to The Boyfriend, always almost pronouncing Clatsop as Catslop) is a less talked about event, comparatively, though it is an interesting part of history in which Sacagawea is elevated, almost above the role she really played and York, who I had never heard of, is excluded. What does that tell us about what we want to come from this event? My reading is that we want to be assured of and maybe inflate how much Native people agreed to and participated in the States' expansion. York's erasure, to me, comes from our stressing of the importance the expedition had as advancement, future-looking event and our glorifying of two men. Slave owning does not align with those characters.
Oh yeah, Chimney Rock. It was hot, about 100 degrees and dry, worse than New Mexico's solid 80 something, but we had not reached Wet USA yet, so tolerable for me. We walked pretty near to it, though the trail did not get all that close, and we parked as far as possible by accident.
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| its like walking up to the beach in the sky |
The next great, though exhausting, stop was the Indiana Dunes. After living in New Mexico, elevation is easy. I can go uphill better than ever in my life. All my mountain hikes gained around a thousand feet of elevation and there was gain on any hike, even whithin city limits. But all that ground was solid. The Dunes are only a few hundred feet above sea level. But the dunes are beach sand off of Lake Michigan and require strenth in my ankles and control I really do not have, though a lot of European tourists and American families of seven or more did much better than I. The sides of the trail were more solid, but surrounded by Poison Ivy. At this point, mosquitos, poison ivy and ticks were back in my life.
After doing 2 out of the 3 dune challenge (My fault, I thought trail 8 would be just like trail 7, same destination, just not part of the challenge), we got to the beach. Chicago was on the horizon and Lake Michigan is always seems to look tropical when the sun is out. It was lovely and I started a small rock collection while combing the beach.
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| my sand walking techinque also brough home some sand |
My final big Road Trip Destination was the Serpent Mound in Peedbles, Ohio. Made by either the
Fort or the
Adena cultures of the Ohio area and made hundred of years before Christ. The
website says that they are hoping to make the site a UNESCO site, and although that is not the end all be all of qualifiers of historical signifigance, it would be nice to have more ancient North American sites be saved and to help preserve that part of Ohio heritage. I also think its soooo much more important than one of the two UNESCO sites in NYC,
the Guggenheim. I hate that fact. There's also multiple mound sites that are currently world heritage sites and none of them are like the Serpent mound. I think it would round out the North American
earthen mound collection.
It was amazing to finally go after finding out about it in my Archeology class. I fet robbed to not have known of the Mound Builders sooner. When most of what remains of a culture is their buildings and few objects, that's when I am truly interested. It has a viewing tower and a pretty good gift shop and a nature trail that takes you around a less lawn-y landscape. Its one of those trails with stairs and bridges and its pretty easy (did it in sandals) and shaded. The Serpent mound was a bucket list thing for me, as American Heritage, natural and cultural, is clearly very important to me. The natural heritage of North America is a specialty of The Boyfriend and makes traveling with him so fun. I want to have the most truthful image of the country available, much more than the things we should have some 'pride' about, focusing on the good ignores the bad and continues to allow ignorance, oppression and holding out on repirations to continue. It threatens lives, both human and animal (and plant).
There is something about geting into the heart of America that reminds me of how much I believe in these things and how much I want all of this to be accessable to all. And accessable to me, after longing to see these kinds of places and to see how these places matter.
Now that I am home, I am cleaned up and excited. I still do not have a job lined up, but I am back on the grind. I've applied to about seven or so since I got back. I wrote some letters on the road and I hope to write some more. My
birthday is coming up and I'm growing up and I am still spending too much money. I am nervous about the next apartment and I am so ready to start building my new life. Everyone I've met since the move has someone in Somerville, moving to Somerville or lived in Somerville. It's trippy!
I also have seen lots of old friends back home and it is strange how much has settled since graduation, except for me, I have been moving a lot. But I've decided to stick to my roots and stay on this coast for a while, staying with my cats and my friends and my family. But who knows, I do love a big move. For some reason.
New York is home, seeing the Mets makes me never want to leave, but I can't be here and a child forever, its already over and I must move on and work hard and make something of myself.
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| my new friend, buffalo gourd |
This is all for this update, once it's done and published, I will be ready to blog once more. I have some ideas and some projects I want to do and I am ready to be creative on my little laptop once more.
