Craziest Adventure with Sophia- Part 2
In my entire life, I’ve never seen someone who was so excited to see Chrisman, Illinois. After leaving my friend’s house, Sophia and I made our way down to my hometown. Driving through mile after mile of flat corn and soybean fields could be considered my childhood in some ways. But I’ve never classified seeing cornfields as almost exotic. Maybe I was wrong about that. Seeing Sophia’s fascination with the wide, blue, cloudless sky and the miles of green, growing fields as far as you could see as we wizzed down the interstate allowed me to appreciate where I come from in new ways. I’ve never seen a place in my travels quite like the farmlands of Illinois and Indiana, which I always considered to be a good thing. Maybe that classification was wrong and naive. When I first left for China almost 2 years ago now, I remember stating that I don’t think I would ever miss seeing cornfields. That was beyond wrong. Seeing those same cornfields along the same journey I took last year after leaving China with Sophia, almost exactly one year later, allowed me to begin to view my homeland as an outsider and tour guide of sorts. I pointed out the growth cycles of the corn and how it was smaller than usual this year because of the torrential rainfall this spring. While doing so remembering the decades of farm talk over most meals of my childhood. Fond memories that I thought I would always want to block out. Maybe the mechanical know-how of the previous post didn’t work through the osmosis of a cellphone conversation with my dad, but farming basics sure did.
We hunted out some chocolate chip cookies, the food that Sophia was craving most from her lack of “western” food in China. We stopped at a couple of stores to pick up basics before heading home, while accidentally finishing off the box of chocolate chip cookies that tasted almost like my mom’s. Oops. Jumping back on the interstate, we continued our journey. I attempted to explain the differences between the labels of roadways in America, while we turned off onto a smaller highway to bring us to Chrisman. “How long til we get there?” was a frequent question, but when there aren’t very many towns it’s difficult to have exact timing down to the minute. Especially if you run into some farming equipment. Once Chrisman gets into our sights, I ask Sophia if she wants to take a picture at the “Welcome to Chrisman” sign. Enthusiastic is the only word to describe her reaction. I’ve never seen anyone take a picture there, unless it was perhaps after working on it.
Over the next few days, I got to introduce Sophia to where I come from. She got to see a covered bridge and some of the family farmland. She got to go to church with me and meet my family. While we were leaving church, right before she left, she said that she wished she could just take my church, building and people, with her back to China. Literally, the best thing you could ever say about a church. We went shopping and got clothes that weren’t ridiculously small. During the process of trying on clothes at one of the stores we visited, we lamented that if you are larger than the average Chinese person, or even at a size larger than an American medium, the best way to feel absolutely terrible was to try on clothes in China. I think I’ve cried a little bit in most dressing rooms I’ve been to while living in China.
One of my favorite memories (and I think one of Sophia’s) was when I took her to my Grandpa Dale’s farm to show her around. I noticed he was out back at the farm, so we got out of the car and I was attempting to tour guide. Grandpa drove his truck over and I introduced Sophia to him as my best friend from when I was living in China. I’ve never seen such a confused look on his face as in that moment. I’m sure he was wondering how in the world was this black person Chinese. I quickly further explained that she was from the Caribbean and it finally connected. So hilarious. Well, he ended up getting out of his truck and giving Sophia the grand tour of the farm. He showed the horse buggy, he drove us around on as children and I learned (a little bit) how to drive. He explained about the combine and how the giant piece of machinery worked. Grandpa even took Sophia over to a random box of last year’s corn, and introduced her to what corn looked like. I think he was unaware that most people know what kernels of corn look like. We both were internally dying of laughter at that explanation. Grandpa was so proud of this farm that he had built and that he had the opportunity to show off this to a total stranger to the scale and mechanics of farming in Illinois. So happy that he got the opportunity to show it off. He even took Sophia up into his giant Versatile tractor and gave her a ride in it. They both seemed beyond excited during that. I don’t know if I’ve ever been so proud of where I come from as in that moment.
Beyond all of the must-see locations of my hometown, with highlights of the nursing home, Casey’s, my old high school, and all four churches in town, I got to introduce her to some of my favorite foods of home. I made some biscuits and gravy (for non-Americans the gravy isn’t brown, and biscuits aren’t cookies here), and took her to Chick-Fil-A. After taking her that first time, whenever on our trip out west it was time to eat, she asked if there was a Chick-Fil-A nearby.
This chapter is getting long, so it’s almost time to end this part. The next part of our adventure was our trip out west. This is where the crazy really happened. We didn’t have any plans and figured everything out as we went along. Literally the most spontaneous adventure you can imagine. And one of the best. Stay tuned for this next part. Coming soon to a theater near you…. wait. That’s not right…. Coming soon to a screen near you…. wait. Just read it when it’s live. #worthit