I-94 is my Timeline

It came to me during the second hour of my drive to Springfield that I-94 is a timeline of memories from the last thirty years.

Driving off the daily grid my mind drifts to dozens of recent memories from the last fifteen years in the Ypsi-Abor area being the trade show guy. 20 minutes later I am reminded of the year at the lake and all the driving to Warren.

If I turn north on 127 it will take me to that job I left a year ago last week. Next I pass Albion where I once had a great weekend with a really cute blonde girl and her boyfriend whom I was better than.

Battle Creek holds two great memories. The largest and perhaps the best was signing the charter of my Delta Tau Delta chapter and bringing it to creation. As #1 I called totem on the national president. Two years later a group of us were in the station wagon. The passengers were forced to sing along to Frank Sinatra tapes I had recorded from my time in Philadelphia and play Mad Libs.

On a train heading to Chicago in the station in Kalamazoo I had decided that the girl I thought so much of from North Carolina was not worth the heartache.

Warren Dunes still look menacing to climb from the freeway. Yet I had gone up and down them as a kid camping there during windy hang gliding weekends.

Somewhere in Indiana I was an asshole to poor Emily, Becky, Sandy and Barb once again on a weekend full of bad manners and poor behavior. It was shortly after that I had realized I was not a special, unique or gifted talent. I should return to school.

Turing south down 55 only a few hours from Springfield I found a great love of the music of Van Morrison while driving through the flat and featureless cornfields of Illinois. It was also here that I received my only speeding ticket.

These are not the major accomplishments of a great man. They hardly make sense to my average reader I am certain. Here I sit at the dreary and worn Hilton in Springfield ready to add another Presidential Museum to the list. My only real thought is that I have accomplished what I set out to do - move beyond this last week and the work of the last three months. I have not thought about it until this moment.