Chapter 3, Cross-Country Road Trip: The First Leg

Our road trip begins with a dreary, rainy slog through heavy traffic, as we head out of town, bound for our big adventure. But, with a seemingly measured sense of purposefulness, slowly the sun begins to push out from the clouds as we approach the Catoctin Mountains. Serendipitously, the radio is playing road songs, including Beach Boy car songs, as we gain momentum. It’s a watercolor picture – literally – as we look through rain-spotted windows at the lovely pastels of crown vetch dotting the gently sloping Maryland landscape in abundance.

Then suddenly, we find ourselves surrounded by blue skies, with fast-moving clouds scurrying to get out of our way.

Now we’re in the part of Maryland that, like most of Virginia, bears absolutely no resemblance to the fast-paced D.C. metro area: lovely farmland, corn rising, picture postcard rural scenes. Everything looks particularly lush following the rainy early summer. Though we humans have been complaining about the endless rains in the east this year, the vegetation has certainly loved the lingering three-month-long aprilesque weather.

Entering Pennsylvania, a huge heavenly light switch splashes bright, healing sunlight. Looking down over the right side of the car, we see a fabulous bucolic scene. “Pleasant valley” Garry calls it – remembering this landscape as one of the highlights of our frequent forays to Pittsburgh when Tim was at Carnegie-Mellon. “That’s it!” Garry exclaims, as he does whenever he spots a possible Once & Future home for us (Other contenders for that’sits include the majestic farmhouse on a bluff overlooking the Susquehanna River that we always admire on our trips north to New England; and – of course – the perfect house for us, on the banks of the Potomac in Alexandria, aka Mount Vernon).

Our first destination on this leg of the journey is Breezewood, PA, where past trips through PA always led us to water our horses (er, I mean, gas up the car).

Then, back in the car. By the time we get to the vicinity of Donegal in western Pennsylvania, our car top is down and we are basking in the glorious sunlight. We’re driving on I-70 past towns with picturesque names like Pleasant Hill and Scenery Hill and Lover (!). Then, as the sun moves lower on the horizon, we wheel past Wheeling, West Virginia. We wonder aloud why that small finger of territory between Pennsylvania and Ohio was carved out to be part of West Virginia, rather than belonging to either of its neighbor states.

Our ambitions for the first day’s drive seem perhaps a bit too high, as the long road brings us past midnight when we finally arrive at our first night’s stop in Indianapolis. This was to be the high-mileage part of the trip. The rest of our trip to Cheyenne will be taken in shorter doses.