Summer Travels

Posted May 17, 2018 by ShanTil Yell

Greetings from Amarillo, Texas–home of the Big Texan 72 oz. Steak Challenge, truly epic thunderstorms, and according to a 2016 article by The Weather Channel, it’s the windiest city in America. Another fun fact? A-Town’s record wind speed clocked in at 84 mph back in 1949, and I would imagine the tornado passing by the instrumentation less than a mile away may have had something to do with that.

Anyway, here I am hanging out with my younger brother, caffeinating with a coconut chai, and smack dab in the middle of my cross-country road trip. It’s hard to fathom that I was at home in Somerville just last Saturday. Since then I’ve been to California to watch one of my dearest friends tie the knot, flown to Texas to spend time with my family, and made a quick trip back to my hometown in Oklahoma to visit my Grams. Y’all. It has been the definition of a whirlwind. I’m zonked from traveling and switching up time zones, and I’m only at the halfway mark. This weekend I’ll drive my missed and beloved car all the way back up to Massachusetts. If you’re wondering how long the trip is, I’ll span roughly 1,950 miles in three days’ time. Does that make me crazy? *cue the Gnarls Barkley song* Yes, it might make me crazy, but I think a few days on the open road will do me a world of good…granted I don’t get a flat tire in the middle of nowhere. I’ve had a hard time letting myself decompress and be still since classes finished, and even though it may seem counterintuitive, I have a feeling this road trip will help me recalibrate.

Here are a few pictures from my travels thus far: Lake Mission Viejo in CA, a sunset in OK, and some fun chalk art on the menu at a favorite local coffee shop in TX.