Thursday, August 25, 2005

Time to Go (Back)

The very first thing I am going to do after I turn thirty is leave for a cross-country roadtrip, armed with veggies, hummus, fresh fruit, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Flipz, and tropical Skittles. (You see how good intentions give way quickly to other, urgent roadtrip necessities, namely sugar and more sugar.)

Saturday morning I am off to the Midwest for our annual visit to see my grandpa in my true hometown (Frankfort, MI, pop. 2,000), and I couldn't be happier about it. This vacation, taken just about every year since I was zero, means certain things are in store for me: lots of stretching out on our sunny Lake Michigan beach, leisurely walks to the lighthouse at the end of the pier, drive-in viewings of month old movies on a giant scratchy screen with a box of fried chicken and a week's worth of mosquito bites, and the nightly show that we never miss--watching the sun go down while polishing off Dole Whips from the local ice cream stand.

(Dole Whips believe it or not are non-dairy ice cream cones, and I have loved them since youth. Apparently this "no dairy" thing of mine has ancient roots. Why aren't Dole Whips available anywhere but the Midwest? I don't understand this. They are the perfect treat. They are also sort of like the Roswell of ice cream products. Try to find anything official about them on the internet. Just try it.)

Where did you go this summer, gentle blog reader? I know people have been away and busy with all the events summer tries to pack in--endless weddings, some fun and some tortuous, weekend trips, in-town barbecues, family vacations. Does anyone else do the traditional summer vacation anymore, or is it just me? Let me know where I stand on this one. I know I am definitely not willing to give mine up.

I can already feel the relaxation creeping in as I think about the week ahead. Nothing is more peaceful than visiting your childhood world, especially if that world hasn't really changed since childhood. A place like Prague is interesting, frenetic, and intellectually stimulating, while Frankfort is familiar, slow, and carries the rhythms of my real life--it's my actual vacation of the summer.

Pretty soon I'll be ordering the kids' happy meal at A&W with an upgrade to the root beer float, I'll be hearing Grandpa tell the Norwegian joke about how to make Limberger cheese, and I'll be making my slow way down the Platte river in an innertube while eating salty potato chips and remembering all the other times I have done this very thing with the most precious people in my life. It's a pretty good way to start the next chapter.

2 Comments:

At 7:02 AM, Blogger kudzai99 said...

Sullivan-

Brilliant blog. What do I do in the summer gentle reader? Two things I go to the Sivananda ashram for deep soul, spirit, heart, mind, body, bone, flesh cleansing--this year it was a 9 day juice fast at their NY ashram and I spend time with Drale on the coast, we sleep little, we talk alot, and he invites, forces, enables me to read fiction again. These are my summers. Off to Montenegro.

 
At 6:13 PM, Blogger huntsmanic said...

love this entry. i am more relaxed for having read it. seriously. now: you are 30 and i haven't written you yet and that makes me feel so bad, but, god, you are in the middle of a week of goodfulness and please go about the business of soaking up enough for me as well. please and thank you.

 

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