Return to the Midwest

Every trip includes some adventures, and getting to return to my old stomping ground reminded me of some things I've missed. Here's some random observations/thoughts from my trip:

After a plane stops in the middle of take-off, it's a little nerve-racking to get back on it. And I was reminded that my greatest frustration with flying is losing all control.

I rented a car for the time I was in town and relied on my GPS to get around St. Louis. I realized that updating my two-year-old GPS would have been smart and might have saved me some of the "recalculating" and ending up in a completely different place than I intended. I also appreciate that my current town has just one interstate. I seemed to take at least two different interstates to get anywhere.

As I was driving around, I started to think that St. Louis country radio stations were getting more new music than the stations I listen to at home. But then I realized I never spend that much time in the car when I'm at home, so I probably just miss the newer music. I decided I haven't missed much by not hearing Taylor Swift's "Mean."

I still love my car. My fear when I drive a rental car is that I will want to buy a newer car, but the whole time I was driving a Chevy Malibu, I actually missed my Honda CR-V. Also, these new cars are really fancy. It took turning the car on and off multiple times to realize the radio doesn't turn off until I open the door.

There are certain foods that I always associate with Missouri and my time in college. The first -- crab rangoon. I don't usually eat Chinese food, but they served these in the sorority house, and I loved them. I've had them other places since leaving college, but they weren't nearly as good as the ones I ate on Saturday night in St. Louis. The second -- frozen custard. It still wins as my favorite ice cream treat. But I was sad to learn the place I always went to in college has closed.

I experienced two new things while in St. Louis -- cicadas and an earthquake. I'm not sure how Virginia has escaped the cicadas invasion, but I am really glad. Those things are deafening and huge! And then there was the earthquake. I woke up a little after 3 a.m. Tuesday morning to my bed shaking. I thought I was imagining it or that someone was opening the garage door. But when I got up Tuesday morning, I learned that there was really a small earthquake about 40 miles outside the city at that time. I was a little relieved to know I wasn't imagining things at 3 a.m.

Nothing like a vacation to give me something to blog about. A couple of friends also confirmed they read this, so I'm a bit more motivated to blog more regularly.