In 1904 my Great-Grandparents on my Dad's side of the family made one of those great social and geographical leaps. My Great-Grandfather came from a poor laborer family in a society with little chance of any social mobility. Against the protests of his soon-to-be father-in-law, who disapproved of the marriage into a more prominent land-owning family, my Great-Grandparents set off to a new life in the United States. The begrudging push from the maternal family was to go to South Africa - seen as a better opportunity and with family already there. Maybe stubbornness and resistance to authority is genetic.
The immediate relevance to this story goes back to 2017 when I took one of the commercial DNA tests. I was a bit terrified to see that it was able to match bits and pieces of my DNA to thousands of other "relatives" - most of these are very minor, and on the order of parlor tricks. Back of the envelope calculations suggest 50,000 5th cousins would not be unlikely, so maybe the number of matches isn't too surprising. But it did start a brief conversation with my siblings on a book that my Great-Uncle wrote on our Great-Grandparents' lives and immigration to the US. Amazingly, this book was available used on Amazon (because of course it was...). The story was interesting and documentation was deep. I was able to use the very 21st century technology of Google Earth to easily find the land where my Great-Grandparents first lived. "I have to go there."
While my DNA data show my history goes well beyond this family uprooting, it is also clear that this is a pivotal part of my history.
Through my uncle, I was able to find a cousin of my Dad's who grew up in the area. He was a wealth of helpful information, and his brother still lives in the area.
So with full vaccination coursing through my veins and lots of vacation time that must be used in 2021, it was imperative that I head out on a real road trip. My older dog must have been anxious for me to leave since she started barking even earlier than I usually get up for work. Or maybe she just really wanted water. This extra time in the morning allowed me to have a cup of coffee and some waffles before heading west.
Home to Nevada, IA: 587.3 miles
As I left, the air was thick with the smell of onion grass. It smelled like spring. It was just getting light as I turned out of the driveway, going down familiar 2-lane roads. Once I got moving I could smell the fresh-cut hay and tree flowers. It smelled like summer; it felt like summer. I was excited to be on the road.
Getting around Indianapolis wasn't too heinous. It wasn't too fun either. But leaving early did make it much easier since I missed most of the rush hour traffic.
I found myself thinking about work just a little bit and allowed this briefly, thankful that I was able to leave work without anything really big lurking.
Then my thoughts turned to big helmet thoughts. Really big helmet thoughts. I thought about my great-grandparents leaving Europe to basically start over. It must have been equally exciting and terrifying. I wondered what would have happened to me if they hadn't. Would I be someone else? Someone totally different? Would I just not be? Or is there some crazy cosmic force in the universe that means that even if they hadn't gone to SW Minnesota, somehow I would still be me? I sometimes have some anti-natalist thinking - it seems unethical to bring someone into this world without their consent. But since I do exist (at least I think I do), it seems like I do owe a debt to my ancestors.
Mostly I was just thrilled to be on the road. Around Peoria, IL I was sick of the interstate and got off, working my way west on smaller roads. They were nearly without any other traffic making it wonderful. It did spit a bit of rain, but not enough to even worry a little bit about. I crossed the Mississippi River at Burlington and stopped to take a few pictures. I'm not sure that the Triumph has ever been across the Mississippi River before. A cop slowed behind me as I was standing by the river. I assumed he was going to ask me to park in a more appropriate location, but he just smiled and waved. My guess is I'm not the first person to do this.
The rain didn't last long and my rain pants started to get really hot. I stopped briefly in the town where I lived until I was about a one-year-old. I don't remember living there, but any time I'm near it seems like I need to stop.
As I got near Nevada a very tiny rain cell blew up right overhead. I had previously scoped out where the library was in case I got to Nevada too early and stopped at it. I was pretty wet by the time I got inside, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been since a short lived deluge soaked the area.
After a bit of time in the library stealing their wifi and waiting out the rain, I drove the final few miles to my cousin Lynne's house. They had recently bought a farm and were deep in renovations. But the house was far enough along to both be really neat and see where it was going. It was also still easy to see that it was a lot of work.
Lynne got there shortly after I did and we headed out to Cole's for a true Iowa tenderloin. Both the tenderloin and the shake were quite good.
Back at the house we caught up a bit while going over some family history and older family photos. I was excited to head up to where our Great-Grandparents first lived and the pictures and stories helped whet my appetite.
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