Domestic traveling

On our drive up to Fargo last weekend for the marathon we had many hours to admire the stark but bewitching Midwestern landscape. Barns, fields, cows, etc. We also had the opportunity to indulge our love of road food (Fritos, giant fountain sodas, a cooler full of sandwiches), rest areas (especially the info centers staffed by friendly, helpful senior citizens; the ones in South Dakota even gave out commemorative pins and called the Laura Ingalls Wilder homestead for opening hours!), and radio (the highlight: hearing the tie-breaking extra inning of Sunday's Cardinals game).

I love how the highway also incubates great conversations. We talked about how we might use what we learned in the past two years to shape our future.

And the future is already underway-- we've swung right back into painting our house in preparation for moving in over the weekend (we hope) before Trevor starts his new job Tuesday!!

Twirling

In the week since we've been home, I've remembered how frantic and busy life in America can be. Catching up with friends and family, making way too many trips to Target, fixing up our house to move back in, job interviews (Trevor, not me), eating our weight in tortilla chips (me, not Trevor) ...

All this, and we're headed to Fargo this weekend for a marathon that we signed up for back in January. Those initial slogs through Zambia's rainy season seem far away now. Trevor has kept up with his training schedule through all the travel and time changes, but I've struggled with motivation and now a cold and a weird pain in my knee. Luckily I'm only doing the half marathon. If I have to, I'll walk. Or crawl.

Home again

I have debated whether to continue writing the blog now that Trevor and I are back home, and I've decided I will for now. After all, life with Trevor is always a journey!

And we're still traveling! We spent part of this week on the road, visiting family in St. Louis. We observed that culture shock hits much worse in the city than our relatively sleepy little town. St. Louis takes America to the extreme, with its sprawling strip malls and multi-lane highways full of Hummers (seriously!??!) and angry, honking drivers. Although I love having the opportunity to buy a 32 oz. Diet Dr. Pepper for 59 cents, I didn't miss family drama or traffic.

Final leg

Well, the journey is now complete-- we're home, at least in our hometown, if not in our own actual house (that will be another week or two). We managed to dodge the cloud of volcanic ash and arrive just a few hours late instead of days late as I had feared.

It's fabulous to be home! Although we're still a little jetlaggy, we're soaking in what's left of the spring flowers, catching up with family and friends, eating way too much of everything, and plotting our next steps. Trevor already has a job interview.

Maybe we'll get slammed by the reverse culture shock that everybody has warned us about, but for now I'm loving the grocery store full of a zillion choices, listening to NPR while I go for a run wearing whatever I want and not getting stared at or commented upon, and letting the dog sleep on my pillow. (Although she snores.)

Volcano, still.

I feel like the universe is messing with me as I nervously scroll the interwebs trying to figure out how I might change our airline tickets if, in fact, the Dublin airport does not open back up in the next 36 hours. This is one of those times I'm cursing myself for booking online instead of through a human being, and for not buying travel insurance.

I just want to go home. I would swim if I could, though my giant heaps of luggage would quickly pull me under.

The morning after

As we walked from Amsterdam's Central Station back to the hotel where we're meeting Trevor's dad and brother, we lamented the fact that the family had to arrive on such a gloomy day and after the Queen's Night festivities. Not only did Trevor's brother miss the flea market, which he would have loved, but the normally pristine streets are filled with wet garbage. And a lot of other really icky stuff.

But when I walked our laundry around the corner, I saw scrubby Dutch people out, sweeping the sidewalks. And the sun keeps peeking out.

Now, if they would just hurry up and get here!