Art on the road

'nother blog entry from on the road.

I’m sitting in the passenger seat, with a beach towel over my head and over the computer, like a tent, so I can see the computer screen. Dang sunshine is too bright for me to see the screen. So I have to hide. I just finished watching a movie on the little DVD player and thought I would blog a little bit. Can’t post til later though.

We met up with Mike and Jen and Annie and Mimi this morning. Annie calls me “Aunt Jenni.” We haven’t seen them since Easter. We stopped for lunch near Kearney at a rest stop. Annie immediately spotted the “playground,” which consisted of some green plastic cylinders with holes in them through which a little child might crawl. She was very excited and ran up to me to say, “Aunt Jenni! If you want, you can take your kids over to the playground!” I had a good laugh. None of my kids have wanted to go to a playground for a few years. I did ask them if anyone wanted to go play, just in case they were interested. But teenagers only like playgrounds if parents aren’t around, it’s after midnight, and they’ve got spray paint. Matt might have gone over to have a look at the amenities, but it’s hard to be the littlest sometimes. Even if you want to play on the equipment, you don’t want to look like a baby to your big brothers and sister. So he declined as well.

Our picnic area had a nice view of a pond with a piece of art in it. It was a very large piece of art, made out of metal. I am not an understander of art; if someone wants to present a message of some significance to me, they’d better just tell me straight out, rather than soldering large disks of stainless steel together and plopping it into a pond in Kearney, Nebraska, because I won’t get it.

There was another piece of art in front of our motel in Iowa. What is it with giant art? Don't they know that most people laugh at that kind of art? This art looks like it is falling backwards while holding a hula hoop. (and yes I know it represents driving. But it still looks like she's got a hula hoop and she's falling on her butt.)

I have not been able to find Smarties candies anywhere. Smarties are a necessary trip snack for me, along with Snyder’s pretzels. I looked for Smarties at Target before we left, but Target apparently doesn’t carry them. And every single gas station we’ve stopped at doesn’t have them either. Wah!

One more thing: I’ve got another idea for people who design cars. My idea yesterday was for more charging outlets to be installed in vehicles (I still car those outlets “cigarette lighters”). Today I would like pull-down screens to be installed for the side windows. I know there are removable screens available that you can hang right on the window with a suction cup, but why mess with a suction cup? I don’t know anyone who can get a suction cup to stay stuck on for more than three and a half minutes. I’ve had to hang a hand towel in my window to shade my delicate flesh from the heat of the Iowan and Nebraskan sun and it’s irritating to hear the constant “flap-flap-flap-flap” of the small portion of the towel that hangs on the outside of the window. So car designers—will you consider my requests?

Now we are at the hotel in Pueblo. Tomorrow we get to the lodge. I finally found a bag (well, Jen found it) of Smarties at the Kmart here in Pueblo. I won't have to go without tomorrow! Yay!

I leave you tonight with a picture of our van in a one of an 18-wheeler's hubcaps.