Missouri

Year of First Visit – 1976
Point of Entry – I-270 near St. Louis

I’ve traveled to and from Missouri more than any other state. Several reasons have factored into that.

1. My brother went to college in Parkville so we took him to school, attended graduation, etc., during his three years there.

2. My other brother got his first job after college in Independence so I traveled to visit him and his wife.



3. I also went to college in Parkville so that naturally included many trips back and forth between there and my home base in Michigan.

4. My church denomination headquarters is Independence so I’ve made many trips for events and training opportunities.

5. My wife was raised there so visiting my in-laws means going to Missouri.

6. My employer of nearly 14 years was headquartered in Missouri so it was the destination of many business trips.

7. Over the years I’ve had several flights layovers in both Kansas City and St. Louis.

With all those reasons and all those trips it’s easy to see that I have a giant conglomeration of memories of the state. If I tried to draw meaning from this mosaic, I would have to simply say that Missouri memories are tied to first steps.



It was my destination when I first ventured out of the state of Michigan. It was the first place I traveled to by plane and the first place I flew to alone. It was the first place I got to visit a sibling and the first time I got to travel with someone other than my parents. It was the first place I lived on my own (almost alone, anyway, in a college dorm). It’s the first place I understood the concepts of sacred spaces and pilgrimages and the first place I ever made a business trip to.

Pretty much everything I’ve done in Missouri I’ve done again. I’ve done them in bigger ways. I’ve done them in better ways. I’ve done them in different places. But they all started there.



If I hadn’t taken that first flight alone to Missouri I wouldn’t have been as ready to later fly alone to Europe. If I hadn’t made a spiritual pilgrimage to Missouri I wouldn’t have been as ready to take a pilgrimage to the desert later in life. Had I not moved out on my own to Missouri I would not have been as ready to move out to more distant or foreign places.

Missouri has been a good, solid, first step for so many other things in life that came my way. Thank you, Missouri, for being willing to “Show Me” the first steps on my journeys.

Mississippi

Year of First Visit – 1998
Point of Entry – I-59 near Picayune

I don’t have too many memories of Mississippi. I was only there once, and it was only for a few hours as we drove through the state on our move from Texas to Maryland.

I remember as we crossed the border that my wife told how one of her colleagues at Carver High School had a job as a teenager to dress in a hoop dress and stand along the highway at the border and wave to the incoming tourists.

I remember the state seeming a bit more desolate that I had anticipated. I knew it would be pretty rural, the route we took was especially sparsely populated.

One of my few regrets from when we live in Texas was that we never made it over to Mississippi to see the historic sites at Natchez. If I ever end up back in Mississippi, that’s the place I’d like to go.

Minnesota

Year of First Visit – 1979
Point of Entry – I-90 near LaCrosse

So far, I’ve been to Minnesota exactly once, and it was when I was 9 years old.

I remember it having a stunning entry as we crossed the Mississippi from Wisconsin. We were caravanning to Iowa to take my brother to start college there. I think that’s the stop where I got to get out of the family’s Ford and into the bucket seats of my brother’s Chevette. We drove into the sunset then stayed in a motel there that night.

It wasn’t long after we got up the next morning that we were in Iowa. That’s the sum total of my Minnesota memories.

Michigan

Year of First Visit – 1969
Point of Entry – Alpena General Hospital

My Michigan memories aren’t so much about the lakes, Mackinac Island, Meijer Gardens, or The Henry Ford. Those are great places but that’s not what Michigan is about for me.



Since I lived there full time for my first 18 years then summers and holidays until I married, my memories could all be about early years or daily life in a simpler time and place. And though these are there and are very much included right along with the tourist locations they aren’t at the heart of my Michigan memories.

This really hit me a year or so ago when I took my kids up to the part of the state where I grew up. “Here’s where my Aunt Katey lived,” I said as we drove to see another relative. Of course, we’d already been past the houses I’d lived in and by where other friends and relatives still lived. At that point my son said, “This trip is just like visiting a family tree.”



Yes, for me Michigan means family. It’s where my whole clan started. It’s where I go to visit my parents and most of my siblings and their families. It’s where my “they’re like family” friends live. It’s where there are some of the very few people in this world who both knew me as a child and know me as an adult. It’s where I can go to a couple different churches and know that the folks there would remember me and make the years since I was last there inconsequential.



Taking my kids to Mackinac Island was about seeing the sites. But it was also about taking them to a place where everyone else in the family had been. And though only the three of us were there that day, they gained a broader vocabulary of experience in my family.

So I have to go back to Detroit, or Port Huron, or Alpena, Mackinaw, Flint, Saginaw, Kalamazoo, Gaylord, Petoskey, Grand Rapids, Boyne City, Ann Arbor, Dowagiac, Oscoda, "the Soo," or one of the many other places in Michigan once in a while, even when it’s just a quick trip in a daydream. Because spending time in Michigan, no matter where I am, is spending time with family.



Even if I never go back inside its borders, wherever family happens for me I’m in Michigan.

Massachusetts

Year of First Visit – 1999
Point of Entry – I-195 near Providence

I was the last one to arrive at the staff gathering. My flight there departed Baltimore after dark, though it was mid-November so it wasn't late at all.



I was working the swing shift so my body was used to going to sleep around 2 a.m. When we pulled up to the dormitory style housing around 10 p.m., everyone else was already in bed and I couldn't find a room where I could turn on a light and read without waking everyone up.



So my first memories of Massachusetts involved me walking the dark, abandoned, chilly streets of Onset trying to wind down in order to get to bed.



That walk set the pattern for my Massachusetts memories with a series of great walks:

-Walking the freedom trail through Boston.
-Walking by the shore on Cape Cod.
-Walking the fascinating streets of Lowell.
-Walking back in time at Plimoth Plantation.
-Walking through the early 60s at the JFK Library and Museum.



There are lots of other walks, big and small, that I'd like to take in Massachusetts. I look forward to going back to stroll the state again.