First Stop: Narnia, Apparently?
Captain’s Log, 3am. Somewhere in pre-Chicago, Illinois.
Colonel Sanders and I are up for the graveyard shift, and apparently also William
The guy at the gas station gave me my coffee for free, which is basically every love language wrapped up into one. Mom was less than impressed and completely, unequivocally, without even a second thought, shot me down in cold blood by responding with, “Yeah, well, it’s probably because we had change leftover from the gas.”
What, mom, really? It wasn’t my un-make-up-ed face that won him over? It wasn’t my trendsetting Vans-with-long-socks look that made him take pity on my bedraggled self? It wasn’t because he was just a decent human being who thought he could help a sister out by blessing her with a 3am coffee?! Yikes. Where’s your faith in humanity.
I just convinced Will that to be part of the Cool Kids Who Stay Up Late To Drive Club, he can only refer to goldfish crackers as broccoli chips so as to not tip off any of the other passengers as to how much fun we’re having by not sleeping. He didn’t quite get the joke until I turned a light on so he could actually see my “It’s a joke, bud” winky face. It kind of killed the subtlety factor, but whatever works.
We’re halfway through Chicago, and he quite condescendingly informed me that “Criminals don’t just listen to not-criminals, Dana,” and Sanders and I have officially agreed to stop going on trips with people our own age and to just bring Will with us everywhere.
We’ve also decided that if Canada ever decided to take over a state, we would be quite fine with giving up Illinois.
And the pothole we just ran over was definitely the missing 6th Great Lake.
So, yeah, overnight drives are definitely the way to go. The lights are lit, as is the music, and the little kids are sleeping (other than apparently William) and all is well in the world.
We got to Kentucky and made it safely to our first real stop (because apparently the Denny’s parking lot where I had the best 20 minute nap of my life doesn’t count): The Creation Museum.
However, the minute we got out of the vehicle, something in our Minnesota-born skin must’ve interacted with something in the air here because it immediately started snowing. Apparently Southern hospitality is a real thing, because we definitely felt right at home in the Narnia-esque climate.
The Creation Museum was great, but hands-down the best part of it was the fact that the planetarium video was narrated by Paul Herlinger, the voice of Mr. Whittaker (one of the main characters from the beloved radio show uniting homeschoolers everywhere, Adventures in Odyssey).
Please let me fully embrace my inner homeschooled nerd here for a minute and say that this experience was so much more emotionally fulfilling than going to the actual Whit’s End in Colorado Springs (which, as we found out this summer on our Big Trip Out West, is actually just a glorified playground for preschoolers).
So not only did the presentation give us all a collective existential crisis (how is it possible that the universe is so uncomprehendingly huge, and we’re so relatively insignificantly tiny, yet God chose us to be in relationship with?), but it was delivered to us with the warmth and care that only Whit can convey. 10/10 would recommend.
The whole thing reminded me of a conversation I had with a classmate late last semester. We hadn’t talked much at all prior to this conversation, but we ended up having a 45-minute conversation right in front of the doors to leave the school (because Minnesota goodbyes are a real thing). It started with a comment regarding healing from trauma and went all over the place from there—faith, therapy, genealogies, and the grandeur and magnitude of the universe.
It ended with her making a comment that I’ve been thinking about ever since: “We’re really all just specks of dust. But, like, significant specks of dust.”
I think that sums things up pretty well. Compared to the sheer magnitude of the universe that we exist within, even our biggest problems aren’t that big. But there’s something really special in that we’re alive and aware and able to comprehend at least a portion of that magnitude, and that we have the option to be in relationship with The One who created it all.
And I just think that’s pretty neat.
So, to sum things up, this day was a roller coaster and so is this post. Tomorrow’s bound to be more of the same, but even more so. Tune in again to see what happens in the next part of our south-bound journey!