Somewhere in the Middle

“What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? - it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.”

― Jack Kerouac; On the Road
West Virginia to Ohio to Illinois to Indiana to Missouri
720 miles

Long driving day, short post!  We drove through the width of 3 complete states today!  The weather was perfect and most of the drive was under bright blue skies with puffy white clouds.  We saw a lot of corn and few people, but made great forward progress.  My back is better when I'm sitting (although I look like a 90 year old man when I try to stand up!), so we kept sitting and driving.  We had planned to stop somewhere in the middle of Indiana, but gained an hour and decided to keep going. 

States traveled on this trip thus far

Okay, I just looked at a map, and see that I got it mixed up!  I guess we actually went from WV to OH to IN to IL.  As we drive, I am again reminded of a significant hole in my education.  I've always said I could do well on Jeopardy if it weren't for history.  I don't know how I made it successfully through school and learned almost nothing about history.  Now I'm adding U.S. geography to that hole.  Wasn't I supposed to learn all about the states in 5th grade?  Don't kids have to memorize state capitals and fill in U.S. maps ad nauseum in 5th grade?  I seem to have missed that (Okay, Mr. Haws had a 5/6 combo, and must have let a few 5th grade standards drop).  I do know all about New Hampshire (my state report in 5th grade): Capital - Concord; The Granite State; motto: "Live Free or Die"; birthplace of the 14th president, Franklin Pierce; state tree - the white birch..., and I can fill in the map on the West and East Coasts, but I get lost somewhere in the middle.

A sad note about NH: The "Man on the Mountain" is on the seal, license plates, etc., but his face fell off the real mountain several years ago.

When I try to picture Iowa or Nebraska or Kentucky, all I can find is "somewhere in the middle."  I can complete an entire map of Europe (circa 1973) with countries and capitals (thanks, Ms. Matzenbacher), but am lost when I get to the middle of the U.S.  New car game: state capitals (by the way, I had to look up capitol vs. capital -- I think I've got it) and state mottoes.  I'm determined to learn this by the time we get home!

West Virginia:  Montani semper liberi (Mountaineers are always free)