Day one was just a nine-hour slog across Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. After making it to Indiana to visit Kathryn’s sister Cinda, I set out to traverse the Midwest while Kathryn stayed and visited a little longer with her sister before later flying back home.
Going across Indiana, Illinois, and Kansas, it’s like it’s made up of Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World” painting. Although the painting depicts a farm in coastal Maine, the massive fields with the distant farmhouses bring out the same feeling of vast isolation, longing, and desperation that seems to fit with many of the farms I pass. At the same time, I find the people here are good and friendly. Why did that guy wave at me as I was passing by? It doesn’t matter, he’s just hanging out and connecting with a through traveler.
Because I was going through as most of the crops had just been planted, you can see farmland stretching to the horizon. I don’t think I ever considered this while flying overhead, but I wondered what it’s like growing up on a farm in the middle of a cornfield. What is the community like? Who are the neighbors, and what about school, town, and church? From where do you draw your values? I can guarantee they are solid and rooted in the earth. How could it be any other way?
The first place I stayed was a winery in Illinois called Blue Sky, which was perfectly named for the beautiful evening I spent there. After leaving the Northeast a week ago, where there was still snow on the ground, I arrived here to the chorus of a million spring peepers.
As I continued across the Midwest, I drove for miles of endless farmland. While impressive, the scenery was just mile after mile of mile after mile of farmland. After spending the night at a hotel in Texarkana to clean up, I only stopped during this stretch for gas and a well-deserved treat from Dairy Queen.
On the third travel day, I arrived in Waco, Texas, around 2:00 p.m. to meet Casey and Elli for the Waco stop of the PDGA Pro Disc Golf Tour.
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