The annual family reunion on Brother Tom’s 40-acre farm named Hawkwind (read more about Tom’s place here) was hot and fun.  He lives up on a hill and two Sandhill Crane families live on his property.  This year there are two babies with one of the couples.   Their unmistakable sounds are such a joy for me since I just last fall drove up to the Jasper Pulaski Wildlife Refuge to see and hear the Sandhills as they migrated through Indiana.

Five of the six of us siblings were here.  Julie and I are heading to Austin Texas to visit the sixth, Bother Kerry.  There are now a slew of little ones as our kids are now having kids….and so it goes.  Some of us went on “the tour” around the hilly property sitting on straw bales in a rickety wagon pulled by a tractor.  The highlights were a dead raccoon carcass in the front yard, two of Tom’s own campsites, the wrecked trees from the herds of deer that frequently come through.  In fact, last night we saw eight deer walk through in a newly planted corn field.

I have lately slept in the RV out by the barn when I stay here.  I love the quiet, the birds, the crickets, the frogs, the hawks and the cranes.  I pee outside in the middle of the night.  I feel liberated peeing outside under the moonlight.

Last night Julie slept in the RV with me as well.  The last time I came in from peeing, I left the door open by mistake.  The early morning birds woke us up an hour earlier than we had planned.  We’re up, getting in our caffeine and scrambled eggs (Thanks, Donna!) preparing to hit the road on the first leg of the Jyoti & Julie Great Adventure Cross Country Tour.

Today we head to Memphis to visit the National Civil Rights Museum at the location where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed.  We are staying in a (maybe) shady motel downtown.  Julie is slightly apprehensive; I told her I’d protect her.

I left Indiana when I was 18.  I came back when I was 35 after my divorce.  The girls were 2 and 4 years old.  I stayed 27 years.  I came back to live near my family spread out over Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.  And now I leave again for family…to live near my girls in Oakland.

And…..we’re off!  

It is in Indiana where I raised my girls, took care of my house/home, found my Democratic family and spent time with the family that I came back home for.  Indiana has nurtured me well.  And today I leave once again.  This process has been so very interesting to me.  I have always been a “present moment” sort of woman, so I really just live and appreciate where I’m at while I’m there.  So, I don’t feel particularly sad, nor do I feel particularly excited.  Today we head out and that’s all that matters.  Today.

Peace out, Indiana!