My Own Pillow

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.
Lin Yutang

Things I never want to do again:
1) Open the door to the women's bathroom at work (we have a one room, no stalls, just one toilet bathroom) when someone is in there. Really, who doesn't lock the door!?!
2) Have to buy a new Winnie the Pooh doll in Kansas City, Kansas (or were we in Missouri by then?) because my daughter can't sleep without one.
3) Travel 18 hours one way with a 19 month old. And then 3 days later, turn around and drive back.

Why didn't we fly, you ask? Wouldn't it have been faster? Wouldn't it mean that you only had to be on a plane with the 19 month old for about 4 hours instead of in a car with her for 18?

Very good questions. Neither my husband nor I like to fly. Not at all. No flying. In fact, we would rather spend 18 hours in the car with our daughter than fly for 4. Plus, we would have had to depend on other people to get rides and all of that mess.

To be fair to my baby girl, she was perfect. Well, kind of. Of the 18 hours, she only spent about 1 and a half screaming at the top of her lungs. Okay, I exaggerate. Crying. And only when she was tired and we weren't ready to stop for the night. We just popped her CD in the stereo, and within 3 minutes she was asleep. Why didn't we think of that an hour ago?

She did well on the car trip, and she was very well-behaved while we were there. She shows no tendencies toward the social anxiety that I have. I don't like big crowds in small places (like a funeral home). I'm fine with hundreds of people at an amusement park or a big open place, but don't close me in with them. I also don't like places where I know practically no one. In this case, I knew my husband, my daughter, and my in-laws. Of course, I didn't have time to be anxious because I was chasing my daughter around as she tried to meet everyone who showed up (upwards of 300 people). Fortunately, being 19 months old smooths over almost anything.

She and I spent most of the funeral in the basement where there was a Sunday School room set up. It had a little play kitchen, so she could not have been set up better.

Having never been to Iowa, I enjoyed the trip. Obviously, I wish that it had been under better circumstances, but I loved seeing all the old farmhouses and miles upon miles of farmland. I was assured by almost everyone that I need to come back in the summer when the corn is tall and everything is green. Then I would know the beauty of Iowa.

I must say although I enjoyed the trip, I was glad to get home to my own bed and my own pillows. You really can't beat that.