Living In The Flow (Part 3)

Our first night was in a KOA campground in Indiana, 100 miles shy of Chicago. I brought Robbie a special treat of butter cookies with chocolate and pop rocks. (Yes, pop rocks. He had never had pop rocks and what better way to celebrate finishing 1st grade?)

We set up our tent. Robbie exclaimed, “Mom, what a great place!” For me, not so great, I couldn’t see how being in what felt like the suburbs sleeping on gravel by a major highway would be nice or lovely.

There were several RV’s with gold stars on the windshield. A couple of Harley’s with Combat Veteran or Army proud stickers, so I stopped to chat and hear about their holidays. Everyone was happy to move and be on the road. There was much joy in having this country as their home, pure stretches of open highway freeing them from pain, sorrow and their feelings of hatred for the government and administration that many of them felt completely alienated from and abandoned by. A couple of people launched into politics, some pro Trump, some pro Hilary. no one between. All extreme.

Robbie exclaimed, “Mom, we have to swim!” And off to the pool we went, Robbie riding his bike, stopping by to move the child size chess pieces around and overall taking great glee in everything.
 
 

 
 

 
 
We had a dinner of green beans and hot dogs. The pop rock cookies were a hit.
 
 

 
 

 
 
Our rest room was good and clean, we took showers and went to bed.

The next morning I woke up at 5, peering out of my tent, a beautiful sunrise peaked over the trees. Purples and pinks, I was surrounded by magic in the RV park. Sun salutations, yoga flow, meditation…all around me became sacred.
 
 

 
 
Beauty was available and right here: in my breathing, in the rustling of the camp as people woke up, made fires and put their coffee onto boil.

Robbie got up, rewarded me with a big grin and pulled out my new hand crank juicer from the car. He put it together, bolted it to the table and juiced parsley, celery, apple, and spinach. “Thank you Robbie!” I had hot oatmeal for him with my Biolite, and we had a nice breakfast.
 
 

 
 
Getting back onto the highway, we made our way to highway 90, getting through much traffic and highway repair in the Chicago area.
 
 

 
 
At some point into Wisconsin I had the sensation of “being able to breathe”. The east coast was in my rear view mirror and I burst out laughing. Robbie laughed right along with me, no questions asked.