Road Trip: The Middle

Kansas stretches her torso, flat and wide. Few trucks, experimental adventure. Nighttime falls far from our campsite. Late arrival, no obvious sites, drunk couple not as helpful as hoped. So sleep finds our small orange and green tent in a field near a lake, apprehensive of a ranger’s bright flashlight, the slow sounds of approaching footsteps.

More cornfields, always more. Sunflowers occasionally break the monotony, and St. Louis is amazing after so much vastness. An empty downtown, no place to eat, but a beautiful long city park filled with fountains to run through. Lunch by a koi pond on fancy college campus; later, too hot cooking of gourmet food for our couchsurfing hosts. Large glasses, intellectual disinterest, fluid gender, perfect for Portland. A deserted city looks back on busy golden days, retaining archaic brothel laws now affecting only sorority girls.Kentucky unfolds ahead. Intermittent rain and the usual stops. By now, I have learnt the contents of each and every gas station mini-mart. Favorite road snacks: pretzel sticks and white cheddar popcorn. We listen to Sabriel on tape...the bell-ringing abhorsen needs to be taken in small doses.
A winding hilly road past endless Kentucky estates. Large elegant houses and impossibly manicured lawns roll smoothly into the distance. Shining thoroughbred horses graze lazily in broad paddocks as we imagine the fine bourbon that is sipped within immense rooms, under moose antlers. Unfortunately, the roads are named by numbers (not their googlemap names) and soon we are lost in the green hills without phone service. A lucky mirror spotting puts us back on track and eventually we arrive at Carter caves campsite.

Our fire roars as it consumes found wood, and two Kentuckian lesbians embarrassedly ask for help building theirs. Their accents are charming and I wonder about their lives. A night walk reveals firefly jewels and friendly horses. We feed them grass and rub their rough coats until our hands are black with dust. Rain pours before dawn, and I awake in a partial puddle.

Mediocre breakfast in the freezing air-conditioned lodge is plentifully supplied by a constantly apologetic waitress. Hummingbirds swoop and dive, competing fiercely for space at the sugar water feeders beyond the wide window.