Spring Break Trip: Overview

I’ve been reflecting on my trip to Iowa over the past week, and I’ve come to appreciate just how different traveling as an adult is from traveling as a child.

When my sister and I were growing up, my parents thought it was important to have what they called “educational” vacations. So they didn’t take us to beach and let us play in the sand for a week. They wanted us to learn things. Specifically, they wanted us to see the largest tract of American soil they could drive through in a given two week period.

In other words, we didn’t drive out to the Grand Canyon. We drove ALL OVER the Southwestern portion of the United States. Grand Canyon. Carlsbad Caverns. Zion National Park. Arches National Park. Monument Valley. Four Corners. And probably a lot more that I've blocked from my memory.

Because of this, I have been to every state in the lower 48, except for the three states on the West Coast (though in many cases, we simply crossed a border, but didn’t really explore the state). For this first hand knowledge of of our country I am extremely grateful to my parents, though at the time I thought of the trips as gruelingly long and boring. A sort of suburban family Bataan death march, but much longer and without the starvation or malaria.

Note to parents/future parents: when your kids are old enough, involve them in planning vacations. Encourage them to research the places you plan to visit. Make it their trip too.

Anyway, traveling as an adult is 100 times more enjoyable, even when it’s only a long weekend trip to Iowa. There's a greater sense of ownership of the vacation--it's what I make it to be, and it includes things I want to do.

Although I’ve traveled as an adult on a number of occasions, this was the first trip that recalled the sense of wandering adventure from my childhood vacations. It was not simply a rush to get from point A to point B, but a journey that was meant to be enjoyed. Jared and I could stop anywhere along the road, as our whimsy took us (like, for instance, if we saw a sign for the World’s Largest Cheeto--which happens to be in Iowa, but unfortunately not in the right part of the state, so alas, we did not see it).

Three days makes for a rather whirlwind and brief adventure. We only had a few scattered hours in each of the cities we stopped in, but we definitely made the most of our time.

To keep this trip chronicle a bit more readable, I’m breaking it down by city and spreading it out over a few days. So stay tuned for my musings on Iowa City, IA; Urbana, IL; and Indianapolis, IN.