Midwest Exotique

Lake of the Woods and the border with Canada - Aug 2013

It has been seven years since the Midwest. Seven years since I sold off, gave away, and packed up my belongings and drove off in Sprout, my ever-versatile Honda Element. Seven years since I set my sights on the East - with little foreknowledge that the Nutmeg State would lead to Afrika ya Mashariki which, in turn, would lead me back to the tropics of Southeast Asia. 

They've been seven good years. Seven years of exploring, adventuring, and learning. Seven years of growth, advancement, and progress. Seven years of rarely looking back.

This July and August, on Home Assignment, I arrived back at the place I started and, as the T.S. Eliot quote goes, began to "know the place for the first time." 

What I found was a place as stunning and beautiful as anything I have seen in seven years of venturing and wandering the globe. There was the solitude of a road cutting through bog-country without another car in sight for an hour. There was also the graceful interplay of wind and wild rice and water in the lakes of the northlands. Both are now as stirring as anything I have seen in the wilds of Tanzania, the jungles of Borneo, or countless places in between. 

The localized cultures, customs, and histories found in each of the places I visited were fascinating. Tales of massive Smorgasbords outside of Madison, the impact of a benevolent family like the Marvins in a small town like Warroad, and the proud heritage of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe were heard anew with a fresh pair of ears. 

Even familiar experiences in my old stomping grounds seem exotic and new: A big band was playing in the Como Park Pavilion! People jog and bike and play with their dogs up and down the Mississippi River gorge! The summer sun sets late - allowing plenty of time for Punch Pizza, patio sitting, and strolls up and down Grand Avenue!  Further afield, you can pay some guys a couple of bucks and have them drop you, a friend, and your favorite drinks off on the side of a river with little more than an inner tube and a gentle current to worry about for hours! All of that, plus access to good ice cream! What magic is this?!?

The gift of travel, especially for extended lengths, moves in two directions, opening up new frontiers and wonderlands in which to explore while recasting the ordinary and familiar as a new-found-land to rediscover upon return. It is a gift for which I am profoundly thankful, especially as I spend my days navigating the 'wilds' of Southeast Asia and my nights dreaming of fields and forests and lakes that blend with the sky - visions of the midwest exotique.