Life since Louisiana

One word: whirlwind.

More words:

Leaving Louisiana, a place I came very quickly to love almost a year before, was very, very hard, so I made an adventure of it. I decided to visit a few of the towns mentioned in O Brother Where Art Thou, one of my favorite movies. I visited Yazoo City and Itta Bena on my way to staying with a friend in Nashville for my first night.


WE'RE FROM THE SAME SOIL, Yazoo City, MS


Self explanatory, Itta Bena, MS

Before I got to Yazoo City, I passed a sign for the Mississippi Petrified Forest, which I'd been meaning to get to. I think petrified wood is cool, and it was also about time to stretch my legs.

The private park is small, and the only trail was about a half mile loop. As I walked it and stared at the different pieces of petrified wood, I contemplated the cosmos, as one does. (Warning, geography vocabulary blitz ahead--)

I noticed right away that the petrified wood in Mississippi looks very different from that in Arizona, like my ring. In Arizona, it's very colorful, and in Mississippi, it's very plain. I thought about the environmental differences that caused these appearances.

The petrified wood in Mississippi is believed to be driftwood from further north in North America. I thought about how the trees, probably spruce and maple, grew in the local soils, fell for whatever reason, and traveled down prehistoric ephemeral streams to central-ish Mississippi, where water high in mineral content passed them over and replaced biological matter with stone, slowly but surely. I thought about the loess bluffs, created by wind blown sediments. I thought about the erosion process that revealed the petrified wood. I thought about the process by which stone breaks down into soil over many, many years, first as saprolite and later as the fine grains that form different kinds of soils. I wondered about the different between a rock eroding into soil and petrified wood eroding back into the earth. Are they different processes? I thought about the movement of minerals from up north to this region, how the original trees in question carried all of these things and changed the environment, and were changed by the environment...


petrified wood in Mississippi


eroded sandy bluff in Mississippi Petrified Forest

and I felt very small, but in a cozy sort of way. Like, ultimately, we're all part of this earth, and we move and change things around, but we're still part of it, and maybe that's part of the reason that I feel so connected to the environment and want to work to care for it.

...

I drove from Mississippi to Tennessee through Alabama via the Natchez Trace Parkway. I stayed with a friend in Nasvhille. The second day, I drove to Kentucky and stayed with my cousin and her wonderful family, who served as bookends to my mission year by hosting me both going to and coming from Louisiana.

I drove through southern West Virginia, passing over the New River Gorge. I spent a few days in Virginia, where Mike met me. We found an apartment and set up all of the electric, gas, cable, internet, etc. and drove back to New Jersey.



It's been a little crazy since I got back. Day one: soil survey up north. Day two: made 15 lbs of potato salad. Day three: went to the beach, and hosted a big family party (hence the potato salad).


Pequest Wildlife Management Area


the consonants in the ocean, South Seaside Park

Did I mention crazy? Grandma has been in the hospital all week (is doing much better now). I had a meltdown over a bit of a dental crisis (threatened a root canal, but so far seem to be surviving with just having a tooth ground down to alleviate some nerve inflammation and sensitivity issues). Mike is getting a new transmission in his car (thankfully THANKFULLY thankfully just barely under warranty). 

And now, in a few hours, I drive to Richmond, my new home.

New Jersey will always be home, but I'm excited about the adventures ahead in Virginia. Things are a little crazy (I may have mentioned)-- Mike and I will both have two moves under our belts this summer, plus new jobs, plus oh, getting married soon.

I vacuumed out my car today and thought, now I just need to get to the beach and get some sand in here. But I buckled in the Lorax, as ever, knowing I'd be back soon enough to accomplish that. Next weekend, actually, for a good friend's wedding.


We have a long enough lease that the dust might actually settle.

I'm ready, dust settling or not.


The Lorax, buckled into my backseat as ever, ready to go, too.

If I say it's ridiculous...

...you know it's pretty ridiculous. So: It was ridiculous.

Day 10: Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Morgantown. 320 miles.

Woke up in the Toledo area. Headed to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

I enjoy the Rock Hall. I think it meant more to me than my travel companions because I knew more of the inductees, being mostly American singers and bands. There was an exhibit on the women of rock, which I kind of enjoyed from a weird, confident woman kind of perspective. It was cool to see all of their dresses and stage outfits and realize that many of them ate food on a regular basis. Another amusing observation for the day: Ringo Starr is the only Beatle not inducted into the Rock Hall for his solo work. I'm not saying I'm surprised, I'm just saying that I noticed it.

From Cleveland to Pittsburgh. We were chasing a really awful storm front the entire day. It had hit us in Toledo the night before and left things a chilly 44 degrees when we left in the morning. We caught up to the clouds in Cleveland, and again on the way to Pittsburgh, but fortunately caught a break and had some cool sunshine to walk around a little bit with another mutual camp friend, Kate (or Lifeguard Kate as she was often called this summer, even though she was the only Kate on staff).

Pittsburgh observations:
1. Parking is a nightmare. Oh my goodness.
2. Not as hilly as I remember, though perhaps it was in a part of town that I refused to venture because I didn't want to have to park again.
3. Definitely remember it having so many bridges though. Lovely views.

We walked over to the Cathedral of Learning and the Heinz Chapel, both of which were very beautiful. At the Cathedral, we checked out a few of the international rooms-- rooms that were designed and decorated by different nationalities when the funding for the building ran out. The Heinz Chapel was very beautiful, with stained glass so detailed it kind of blew my mind. We got pizza from a place on Kate's street and ate it on her roof, a very peaceful picnic. It was great to see our sweet friend again!

From Pittsburgh to Morgantown. This was my bright idea mostly because I wanted to see my friend from undergrad, Jessica, but also because I was hoping we'd be more ahead of schedule and actually get to see some things. Not the case. We drove in after dark, partied with Jessica and her cool boyfriend Josh till the wee morning hours, crashed for a little while, then got up and drove out of West Virginia again before sunrise.

Morgantown to Johnsonburg: ~360 miles. It was ridiculous.

Well, dawn was breaking as we headed into Western Maryland, which I learned is quite a lovely place! The drive was really beautiful, but I had to hand over the keys and take a nap for a while. We missed an exit in that time, so whatever, we looked at the atlas and chose a different route to head home. We ended up driving through Harrisburg and then the Lancaster area before making a beeline for Johnsonburg, as Jakub had a flight that evening from JFK. In fact, we hit some traffic and took a slower route than we should have, so we didn't leave a very big window for Jakub to make it to the city and up to the airport.

And so we all piled back into Arlo the Van for one last journey, in which we basically circumnavigated New York City because I thought driving for 2 hours was better than sitting in 2 hours of traffic going back the normal way across the George Washington Bridge. While the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and Jamaica Bay are lovely and scenic, I do not recommend doing this, as we got to pay the $8 toll over the GW into the city and the $13 toll out of the city via the Verrazano. Didn't really think about it, just didn't want to sit in the intense outbound traffic we saw as we crossed the George Washington earlier.

We arrived back to camp safe, alive and well, but missing Jakub. Michael left with his girlfriend that night; Timi the next morning, Jozsef that Sunday and Maciej on Monday. The last of our staff is gone and summer is really over.

Doesn't mean I'm not brainstorming my next adventure...