summer driving

i never don't want to travel.  i usually look across some water for where i want to go.  but not this year. probably because i have NO money and even those dreams seem too expensive.  besides, the united states can be pretty cool.  look at everything that we have to offer.

so, i've been dreaming closer to home.  but not in the west.  i've been all over the west/southwest.  i will accept the northwest, but nothing lower than oregon and farther east than the washington/oregon/idaho border.  except for yosemite.  i will go to yosemite, but that is the only thing that i will look at in california.

that would be a great trip:

start in yosemite

drive up the oregon coast.  stop off in portland just to check it out a little bit.  end up in forks, washington.  because there is no way i am going to get that close and not check it out.

(lupe, is that you?)


or, i could check out that block of middle states past new mexico, colorado, wyoming, and montana.  you know, the dakotas, kansas, nebraska, oklahoma, indiana, illinois, ohio, iowa.  those sorts of states.  i drove through them once.  so, so many amber waves of grain.  i could drop in on the corn palace in iowa:

that entire facade is made out of corn.  i know.  i have seen it.  i think that the corn palace should have been built closer to the kansas underground salt museum, where i would also visit.  i wouldn't be opposed to stopping by mount rushmore while i'm in the area.  i would want to eat a big old slice of apple pie on someone's porch while the national anthem wafted in from some unknown somewhere.  and, in all seriousness, i would need to go to chicago.  i've never been.  a horrible oversight.

then i would round it all off by participating in a rebellious dance.

but i REALLY want to go here:

the. south.

i have been there a couple a times in my life.  and a couple is just not enough.  just look at the food they've got going on in this part of the country.  the first time i went there, the first thing that i saw was a car with spinners with 5 inch blades coming out of them.

those whirring lines in the middle of that spinner are not whirring lines.  they are whirring blades.  and as soon as i saw that, i knew that the south was a worthwhile place to be.  there are just too many things that i want to see to list, atlanta, the outer banks, plantations, anything and everything to do with gone with the wind, the great smokey mountains, maybe mardi gras...but may be not.  i could list forever.  i would want to come back changed, completely different saying things like, "y'all" and "might could" and "mmmmmmmhmmmmmmmm".  i would want to know how to cook chitlins, fish and grits, georgia peach pie, grandma's homemade baked biscuits, hush puppies, barbecue,  and deep fried anything.  i would want to get cornrows, but would be too embarrassed.  i would think i could rap, but really couldn't.  and then i would need to go to washington dc.  i haven't been there since i was 7, and that is just not cutting it.

i realize i've completely disregarded the great lakes states and new england.  as soon as they get cooler, i dream about going there too.  heh.