The Heartbeat of America
Broad mouthed & Bright eyed, horned bulls and brawling bears with behemoth boxes strapped to their backs rumble to the rhythm of the road beneath them, the heartbeat of America; logistics. As the Winnie rolls eastbound on Route 80, the commerce in this country is all around me. Prime, Ups, Fedex, Walmart, Fresh produce, fuel and milk tankers, giant steel beams; an endless parade pulses through the arterial roads of the country. It is amazing, everything travels by truck at some point in the supply chain. After two years of covid, a robust economy is chugging back.
Travelers too are getting back to life with license plates revealing the trend; California, Arizona, Texas, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois marching through the heartland. Neat green rows with linear patterns cover the brown winter countryside revealing tender sprouts. Bright yellow fields of wildflowers occasionally surprising. Battered red-brown barns peak out from rows of arborvitae wind barriers. The images repeat across Michigan, Indiana and into Ohio. The repetition is calming, hands steady at 10:00 and 2:00 on the wheel. My thoughts roaming now inspired by the music playing a mix of Sunday Funday Pandora Radio. I’m in the ‘zone’.
Silky smooth, Aretha’s, “The moment I wake up, before I put on my makeup, I say a little prayer for you” suddenly brings tears to my eyes. Driving and thinking of dad gone 17 years now but my co-pilot today. Ziggy Marley wants me to be “True to myself” and I feel my cheeks pull back into a smile as it should be on this ‘day one’ of just that. Followed by the pounding beat, “Ooh woo, I’m a rebel just for kicks, now, Let me kick it like its 1966, now”, has me tapping along singing, “Ooh woo, I’m a rebel just for kicks, now, just a rolling down the road, 2022, now.” The driver in the big rigg passing me by, nods along with me.
Lunch and a Sami walk with a zoom call in the service stop and we’re off, the Lighthouse at Cedar Point campground my first stop in Sandusky, Ohio is only an hour more. By the time we pull into the campground it’s near 3:30pm. The campground is hidden by a series of skyscraping roller coasters part of the Cedar Point Amusement Park. The contemporary Campsite has a paved cement pad, brick paver patio & firepit and a built-in grill. Flanked by Arborvitaes and a curving brick wall, my eyes are drawn to the western view of Lake Erie front and center. Random washed-out boulders line the waterfront. A series of rocks lily pad style, jut out along the sandy beach area toward the west forming the perfect perch for a multitude of birds. Red winged blackbirds twill a throaty high-pitched song. Sami stands at alert as dozens of Swallows dip and land on tall thin branches of mosquito laden greenery. It is a stunning panoramic vista; I park the Winnie and expand the slide out of my moving home. Sami and I head out for a 2 mile walk around the pristine grounds.
Soup and salad satisfy for dinner and we both settle in to watch the evening show. Oranges and Reds surround a yoga sized ball of yellow sinking into the west with a range of hills and clouds backlit by the setting sun. I can’t resist a facetime walk about with Jim and Natalie. My 88-year-old Mom, still valiantly trying to find the Gone with the Winnie blog, wants to know if I like being alone…and a chat with Dori, Rachel’s first roommate and winner of the blog naming with “Gone with the Winnie,”rounds out the evening. Sami and me head inside the Winnie after a day well spent; inspired by the countryside, spending time with Dad in the ‘zone’, and the rhythms of the road, witnessing the resuscitation of the Heartbeat of America.
