and we traveled by night ‘cross Kansas….into Missouri…watchin’ skies light up…fire works ‘bove cornfields…highways illuminated by red and purple and brilliant orange…
streamin’ from the heavens while talk radio took calls ’bout foreigners…freedoms…fidelity…and what it means to be a Christian in America today…talk and more talk with loud pops goin’ off like guns in the Civil War…just a constant barrage of bottle rockets blowin’ up makin’ kids in the back seat smile while dad drove and mom slept with her head ‘gainst the window…

no one said anything…radio did all the talkin’…more callers callin’ in with words of importance ’bout politics and pundits…the outrageousness of Hollywood…crimes and misdemeanors in a country divided…mom began to snore…

fireworks kept goin’ off…colors blazed throughout the night…from Kansas to Missouri and on into Arkansas where the smell of alfalfa came through the air vents…a skunk scurried ‘cross the road…

and the radio was turned off…just silence as dad drove and the old Chevy rolled down highways and back roads to a place we called home…

home…it was good to be home…