Road Trip

So this past weekend we took a whirlwind weekend jaunt to Archbold, Ohio to be at my grandma's 90th birthday party. The drive used to take about five hours, but we couldn't manage it in less than seven this time. The border suddenly seemed like an almost impermeable membrane, and I've never felt as unwelcome in a country that is actually mine. Border guards are no longer border guards: they belong to the Department of Homeland Security. We were tagged and made to stop and wait at customs. It's almost impossible not to feel slightly criminal in such situations: when told by highly armed men that you must leave your vehicle in their possession, and given confusing instructions about what you are permitted to bring along, and what you must under no circumstances take with you. It all ended up being a fairly brief clerical issue, cleared up within half an hour, but it felt deeply uncomfortable. And then we drove into Detroit, which is an abandoned city, almost like a ghost-town, its roadways permanently under construction. We've been crossing the border for almost twenty-five years, and it seems like that entrance onto the I-75 is a forever changing detour.

We had decided to follow our GPS rather than using one of those old-fashioned devices known as a "map," and that resulted in a rather roundabout route to Archbold, made worse by our collective hunger (we hadn't anticipated the border issue, and had decided to wait for lunch till crossing), and needing to find a bathroom, and the driver (me) making a series of wrong turns (husband says, "Go left"; driver turns right). I consider myself generally calm, as is my gentle husband, but suspect, based on Saturday's evidence, that we are not destined to win the Amazing Race.

The hotel was a lovely oasis, with a beautiful swimming pool. We slept remarkably well, seven in one room. And on the way home, just across the Canadian border, we ate lunch at a Viet-Thai restaurant that we came upon completely serendipitously. 

Today is my writing day, and it's short, and I'm Monday-morning-brained. But I've had a piece of good news, professionally: I've earned a small grant toward this book. It shouldn't matter so much, but does make the work feel that much more purposeful. The project is about half-finished, and then will need some sturdy rewriting and editing at the opening chapters/stories. These are BIG stories, much longer and more intricate than I'm used to writing. Yet I want them also to feel as clean and cut-to-the-bone as possible. So that nothing remains but that which matters to the story. Nothing like life, really, yet hopefully illuminating thereof.