Recollections of a Transient Summer

by Emily Muller

This summer I embarked on a roadtrip to the mountains with my immediate family. COVID-19 made our travels a profoundly different experience than the journeys of past summers, as I had virtually no contact with anyone besides for my mom, dad, dog and a pair of nuns. Along the way we had our fair share of misadventures - from accidentally falling into possession of hundreds of occult books in a haunted cabin to spending two days in a hospital in the middle of Toledo. In what was a slight silver lining after a series of mishaps, our thirteen year old Boston Terrier, Zoe, got to see a state other than Illinois for the very first time. I have little nostalgia for sleeping in the car, but I do miss watching Zoe have the trip of a lifetime.