There are Risks Involved in Traveling

Your parents wake you up and you really don't want to get up. You could close your eyes and fall asleep instantly, but you don't. You get up and notice the sun has been up for a while. Your parents have been up for a while, doing laundry in the laundromat. You get out and stretch. The air smells like a typical truck stop. The smell of exhaust, diesel, and oil combine. Your parents are out and you help them carry a couple bags into the laundromat.

After you leave the truck stop you enter Illinois. One of the first towns you go through is Moline, IL. Moline is home to the world headquarters for John Deere. The company that produces the green tractors has a distinctive building that was created by the architect of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO. The company is also unique because they have been around for 177 years and the world headquarters are still right here in Moline. You don't stop because you have to keep going. You have to be in Baltimore, MD the day after tomorrow.

While driving along, you see plenty of deer in the fields. Their white flags waving behind them as they hop off into the timber tell you they are white-tailed deer. You also see small and big farms. Most of them have been around for many many years. They have seen the turn of the century and have seen historic storms. But they still stand the test of time.

At about the 112 mile marker, the traffic comes to a standstill. The red brake lights ahead of you, signal you aren't going anywhere soon. You stare out the window at the fields of corn and grain.The lush green fields remind you of your family's old farm in Oregon. It used to be so much fun to play there. You could run through the fields and ride horses. In between fields there are tall oak and gum trees. Their green leaves sit still. They are beautiful trees that make you want to play on a tire swing. Your mind is brought back to the traffic as you start to roll a little. The traffic starts moving a little faster. When you make it a couple miles you see what the delay was. There is a multi-vehicle accident. There are two cars in the ditch and a car and SUV blocking the lanes of traffic on the other side of the freeway. The car and SUV sitting in the road are opened up like somebody took a giant can opener and opened them like a can of sardines. It reminds you of the risks involved in driving. As you pass by you hope everyone was alright. You look it up on the phone and find that there was a fatality. The road has claimed another life. You count the miles of the backup caused by the wreck and it comes out to a total of 10 miles. Eleven miles from the end of the backup, you see another accident. Luckily, this one is just a fender bender between three cars. The front car looks relatively unscathed, but the other two cars have big dents in the red and black bumpers. The black car is the last one and also has a front end that is pretty mashed up but not completely totaled.

The accidents make you think about how precious life is and how people need to enjoy it while it lasts. Any day could be your last. Before you know it you reach Chicago. Chicago is a big city, but it is also very dangerous. You remember when you were here for the 4th of July in 2011. You remember people telling you to only stay on the main train line. When you got downtown you her cops talking to kids and adults alike telling them they are not allowed to wear any gang signs (e.g. Hat sideways or tipped). By the time the fireworks start there are over a million people around you watching. When the display ends there are four cops on every corner and mounted police officers herd people off of the pier like thousands of goats out of a garden shed. It's these little moments that you don't want to miss, and the ones you want to remember forever. You only go around the actual city to avoid traffic, but you can still see the Sears Tower (aka The Willis Tower). The tall skyscraper reaches toward the fluffy clouds like a child reaching for an apple on a tree. Try as it might, it can't reach them today.

The tower fades away behind you into the haze of the city. As you drive along buildings tall and short, old and new fly by. Some are made of red bricks others are made of wood. The buildings start to be noticeably different. Most have chains and gates on the doors and windows. Also, there are fences with barbed wire around buildings. The atmosphere has also changed to be more eery. You have now entered Gary, Indiana city limits. Gary is a very dangerous city. It is the type of town that you keep your car doors locked while driving through it. You don't stop there. The city is not dangerous only because of gangs. It is like a criminals town in the wild west. The average tourist or individual shouldn't go there unless needed. All of the stores lock up as soon as it starts to get dark. The locals lock up, shuts the metal gate over the windows and doors. If you go there at night the streets are abandoned by all smart people. It is one city you are overjoyed to get out of.


You leave the cities behind passing some small ones, but you are back in the country. The beautiful farms are dreamy. The cute little houses with barns and acres and acres of crops. You can see that they have had more than enough rain. Some of the quaint little farms are flooded. Most of the fields you are seeing are flattened and completely ruined by rain. The destruction is going to affect many families. It starts to get dark and a gentle shadow drifts over the beauty and destruction of the land. A little later you enter Ohio. You stop for the night in Toledo, OH. When you arrive at the truck stop you are going to stay at, you see flooding along the roads and in the parking lots of nearby businesses. You pull into the Petro. Part of the parking lot is flooded. In some spots, it's a couple feet deep. You take some pictures and get back in the vehicle. You look at the pictures and think a while before you put your camera away and fall asleep.