This is the third time that Alex and I have taken a road trip before the school year begins. It occurred to me that this might be the last one that is timed this way. Next year he’ll be in high school, and if he continues to run cross country, it’s likely that he’ll be in conditioning or something at this point. The last year of middle school hasn’t even begun, and I find myself facing transitions.
We got a late start on things, in part, because the day before our trip started, Alex’s dad was playing at the Ypsilanti Heritage Fest. We stopped by for a second so that he could see his dad before the trip. Little did I know that Alex is totally comfortable helping to break down the equipment. I also didn’t know that Alex as going to run into people that he knew, and that we would wind up watching parts of a Ring of Steel performance. What I thought would be 30-40 minutes tops turned into a couple hours. It was fun, though, to get a glimpse off the Alex that exists when I’m not around, to see who he is when he walks through the world independently.
Going to Mount Rushmore is the main objective of this trip. My road trip experience has taught me that driving around 6 hours a day isn’t sweet spot. So we planned to spend the first night near Madison. We lolligagged too much on the way, so we missed opening hours at the National Mustard Museum. Instead we walked around downtown Madison. Alex remarked on how the different cities that we’ve visited over the years have different flavors. 
The next morning, by the time we were showered and all of that, and by the time we made a second visit to Hurts Donuts, it was almost time for the National Mustard Museum to be open again. So, we got to visit it after all!
Those donuts were gigantic. I still haven’t finished either one that I got, though they were delicious. The growing boy, though, managed to get through both of his, albeit in several sittings.
When we were walking around in Madison, a bookstore called out to me. Despite working in a library and owning a bunch of books, I still had to go in. I’m glad that I did, there’s a book I never would have seen otherwise, and when I get home, I plan to hunt it down.
I love all of the weird museums that you encounter when driving across the country. The moment that I found out that there was a Spam Museum and that it was on our path, I knew that we had to go. I was not disappointed. We left with a pair of Spam Singles, which I confess I am afraid to try, and a Spam shot glass. I’m not afraid to use that.
Last night, the goal was go get to Sioux Falls and spend the night in the tent. My son sleeps so soundly. Weird soundly. I prefer it when he snores. When he snores I know that he’s breathing!
On these trips, I take a lot of photos. I’m interested both in images on their own, and memory keeping. Right now, with the number of projects fighting for my attention, trying to chronicle the trip as it’s happening might be the best way for me to do the memory keeping.