Shekels and Soup

After a couple of sunny days off in Huntsville, we got back in the truck and headed north just as the weather in the eastern part of the country began to turn. We drove through some on again, off again rain that somehow managed to pour buckets every time I stepped out of the truck. Seriously, as soon as I had to pee, and had an opportunity to do so, the heavens opened, and I was soaked within seconds. Then it would literally stop raining right after I returned to the truck.

We were lucky enough to get an opportunity to stay at the Whitehaven rest stop near Paducah, KY. It is an old house that was preserved and converted into a really neat rest stop. Apparently they give free tours in the afternoon, but we couldn't stick around for that long. I couldn't even get a decent picture, first because of darkness, and then because of rain. Maybe next time...

It's interesting to see how connected the weather is out here, how the larger systems move through such large areas. When it was thirteen degrees in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, it was extra cold in the south. When it started to warm up in Florida and Alabama, it also got really nice in DC and Chicago. When it cooled down and got rainy, it happened all over. I suppose I pay more attention to the weather now than I did before, but I never really felt connected to the rest of the country in this way when living in Seattle. So much of our weather moves in from the water, and systems are blocked or changed by the mountains. It's tempting to extrapolate this disconnectedness to other areas of life.

When we got near Chicago, my dad dropped me off at a train station, and I rode a commuter train into the city, where my cousin picked me up. Before long, we fell back into our breadwinner/housewife routine, and I spent much of Friday cooking lentil soup and baking banana crumb muffins. Yum. We also played a game straight out of her childhood, a Christian children's game called "Shekels & Sword Game." One part of the game involves choosing a character from the bible, and there are fun little things that each character has to do. We discovered that the male characters are more likely to get financial rewards for their tasks than the female characters. Hmm. So if any of you ever run across this game, and decide to play it, it's best to be a male character. If you really must be a female, choose Martha.