My mom and brother arrived in DC two evenings ago, and we went out for a delicious Indian dinner with Madison’s family. My mom couldn’t quite comprehend that the Buskers had to keep an eye out for snakes in their yard: New Jersey doesn’t have land snakes, and it’s easy to discount reptiles as exotic tropical beasts when you’ve rarely seen them outside of the zoo. We laughed. But Madison hadn’t believed me about the mafia the first time he visited New Jersey, either.
Yesterday morning, after hugs and kisses and “honey be safe’s” from my mom and Madison’s mom (multiple moms definitely feed off of each other’s mothering) we left our nation’s capitol and pushed west. The morning passed at a leisurely pace. We were headed to Woodstock, Illinois- Emily’s home, where Madison would meet her mother for the first time. In Ohio we saw a tractor trailer lying most ungracefully on its side, oozing fluids and generally making a mess of an off-ramp. Madison was worried that our flying road-brick Honda Element would tip over, but my brother Ken and I had carefully packed the heavy gear on the bottom.
At every state line we took a picture of Frances, our luau-skirt-wearing ‘dashboard mama,’ with the “Welcome to (name your State)” sign. The photos will become a collage for Madison’s colleagues at David Gardiner & Associates. We’re thinking of stretching out the giant spring inside Frances’s hips so she wiggles more seductively. We made it to Woodstock (just northwest of Chicago) in time for dinner. As we approached the town, Madison pointed out an ice cream shop at the side of the road. It was very Midwestern.
Emily’s mom had prepared Johnny Musset. I had never heard of such a dish, or even ever tasted Velveeta cheese, the primary ingredient. I sampled a creamy nugget and felt like my mother must have felt when she heard about the snakes. “Awwww, a northern boy,” laughed Emily’s mom. The Johnny was delicious, an egg noodle casserole with tomato, cheese, and sausage- imagine turbocharged spaghetti-Os with far better texture throughout. It was very Midwestern. So were the crops growing near Emily’s town.
This afternoon I’m heading into Chicago to see the Museum of Science and Industry (nerd, I know) and then the beach with Sara. Madison is being shown around Woodstock and meeting Emily’s friends. Tomorrow morning we leave for Tracy’s house in Minneapolis.
You have inspired Emily and me to take a road trip! I just want to eat at Taco Bells in multiple states, but Emily wants to "camp" and experience the great outdoors. I'm reading the wikipedia article on camping right now; I'm going to assume "obtaining food from the wild" means going to Taco Bell in El Paso.
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