Whoooa, We're Half Way There...

Not being woken up in the morning by an alarm is one of my favorite things in the world. For me, there are few things more wonderful than sleeping until you wake up on your own. But because I’m officially moving into middle adulthood, my eyes first popped open at 6:00 AM. Realizing there was no need for me to be awake at that hour, I closed my eyes and eventually drifted back to sleepy town for a couple more hours.

After breakfast, I went to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. It is five museums in one and it was most certainly a delight. Admission is $20 per adult and it is easily worth the money. Museums are a guilty pleasure of mine and this facility was every bit as good as anything even the Smithsonian has to offer. It was clean, highly interactive, and very well put together. The Firearm Gallery is one of the largest in the world and contains nearly 7,000 firearms. The Art Gallery contains paintings and sculptures from local artists. There is an exhibit about the history of the Native American culture, a museum of natural history, and of course, an entire section dedicated to Buffalo Bill himself.

William “Buffalo Bill” Cody was a scout for the United States Army, among many other things, and he earned his name by killing buffalo for railroad workers to use as meat. He was also anti-slavery and supported the rights of Native Americans and women. His traveling show “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” made it to cities all over the world and even performed in Effingham, Centralia, and Olney, IL.

After the museum I took the opportunity to visit some of the shops in the downtown area and enjoyed lunch at the local Mexican restaurant before returning to my room to get caught up on my TV shows I’ve missed this week.

Today marks the halfway point in my trip and tomorrow I start my journey home. There is still so much for me to experience between now and when I hit the Illinois border, but I also know that every stop I make brings my journey closer to its end. I’m not sad though. I love returning almost as much as I love leaving. (Although neither of them compare to actually being at my destination.)

There are two different sets of emotions attached to leaving versus returning. When I leave there is an air of nervousness and cautiousness. I have so many goodbyes to say and hugs to give and cuddles to have with my baby nephew. I have to make sure everyone knows their assignments like mowing my yard, mailing my mortgage payment, or sowing grass seed in my yard from where I recently had two trees removed (*clears throat* Dad, I’m talking to you). Everyone always tells me the same message which is to be careful and stay safe. Like, okay, I was actually going to drive 90 on the interstate, controlling the steering wheel with my knees, while eating fried chicken with my hands and not wearing a seatbelt. But since you told me to be careful, I guess I won’t do that now. I know that what they really mean is that they love me and that for my sake, they don’t want anything to go wrong while I am so far away from them. I know I will be missed, and they know I will miss them. It’s bittersweet.

But when I return, it’s different. There is still a lot of hugging and cuddling but order always seems to get restored when I hit the city limits. I go back into my routine of pizza nights with my nephews and watching The Walking Dead on Sundays with my sister. I go back to running by my parent’s house on a random night just because I haven’t seen them all week. I go back to the occasional breakfast dates and wine nights with my friends. I even go back to work which is a hard job, but my coworkers are amazing so it all balances out. I go back to Saturday mornings of laying on my couch in my beautiful home on my quiet dead end street in the town that raised me. Yes, leaving is great, being gone is even better. But nothing compares to coming home when you know you have so much to come home to.

Tomorrow I start making my way back home and my first stop will be in Casper, WY for a couple of nights before moving on to Denver, CO where I am looking forward to being with some familiar faces!