I think the number one spot on the list of things I will miss while living in Wyoming will not be the lack of reliable internet, nor having to climb a small mountain to get cell phone service, no, I think I shall miss Barnes and Noble the most.  I just received the 2011 Rand McNally Road Atlas (at a 40% discount for B&N members) and have been fastidiously mapping out my drive west. 

From Baltimore I plan on heading to Niles, Ohio.  Although this town boasts the birthplace of William McKinley, I am not going for the purpose of paying my respects to our 25^th president.  I will be visiting and hopefully joined for the remainder of my journey by a very good friend from college, Alaina.  From the once booming industrial belt, I head to Carmel, Indiana to visit the lovely Jordan, my muse.  

However at this point the possibilities open up into a vast array of scenic routes, highways, byways, motorways, interstates, flat states, square states, and I am a deer in the headlights.   At first I thought to head up 74 to 80 and drive through Iowa City, over to Omaha, up to South Dakota where we will pass through the Badlands and rush on to Mt Rushmore, where I hear my two favorite presidents, TJ and Teddy are carved with 20 foot noses each!   

Then I considered heading north from Carmel up towards Chicago, cutting through Wisconsin and Minnesota to SD. But I lived once in Minnesota and would like to see something new. My most current plan, which is as mercurial as high school relationships, is to head west, through Missouri and Kansas, up the western edge of Nebraska and to Rapid City. The plus side of this route is the possibility of a short trip to Oz. 

Having never driven west of a creepy campground in West Virginia, I am rather at a loss for where to go or anything worth passing through.  As my last name suggests, the most important thing is that it make a good story! Thoughts, ideas, philosophies, questions, comments, interesting anecdotes and prayers are highly appreciated!  

Ever wandering in search of a good story,

Jeny Timmel

With almost exactly two months before I step foot in the western world of Wyoming that I have come to love, I decided to begin a blog, albeit with a wee bit of trepidation. As a favorite demotivational poster states about the so called art or craft or hobby of 'blogging', "Never have so many said so little to so few". While the last third may ring true, I hope there will be more to this than a Dear Diary a la National Park.


So, here goes. Whenever I begin something, and I mean something bigger in scale than emptying the dishwasher, I find the words I choose are often borrowed from one of my great loves, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and G.K. Chesterton. These men are so beloved to me, I can't help by wish I had a name as clever as Clive Staples, and could shorten it to initials, slipping ever so softly into an enigmatic persona.

Today I am borrowing from Chesterton, a quote which I used in my Lit thesis on the recovery of the senses, "The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land." I know I am an East Coast girl. I love the coast, I love the hustle of little Baltimore; the impatience and constant motion serves as a reminder of the thrilling hum of humanity around me. However I am excited for this new adventure, a chance to see new places and meet people from such foreign walks of life. I only hope to discover so much about this different world that I can see myself through eyes reborn, and thus return one day to view my own home of Baltimore as a new, perhaps even foreign land. When I say foreign, I mean only that one day I might see all this with new eyes so that I can appreciate all the wonderful things that I have grown to gloss over, to look at without seeing.

As ever, just the musings of a wanderer,

J.C. Timmel.