My mom would be so proud. During my childhood, she always used to tell me and my brother to sit back and enjoy the pretty scenery
whenever we got fidgety on long trips to go see our extended family members who lived hours away in the easternmost part of our state. At the time, her suggestion generally failed to spark any shared excitement from two bored kiddos; but now, as the never-ending stresses associated with the average daily grind of adulthood can often take a nonstop emotional toll, the idea of simply sitting back and appreciating the rolling hills and pastoral sights passing by just ouside the window suddenly seems like a much more appealing proposition. So with a 28-hour round-trip journey ahead of me on a highway excursion from Texas to Minnesota and back, I simply set my iPhone in my lap and snapped away.