Travel Tuesday-- Full Circle in MD

This isn't exactly a tale of exciting travel, but perhaps an every man tale nonetheless.

Moving. Sucks. And I seem to do it all the time!This picture is of the moving van I rented and was taken when I had to stop A MILE away from returning it because of a blow out.

This was taken last week as I relocated from my beloved city to the same small town where I grew up. Now, it isn't quite as small as it was 20+ years ago (wow did typing that make me feel older), but the trademark ice cream stand still will sprinkly chocolate jimmies over my mixed cone on the corner.

OK, OK, this "small town" is 45 minutes outside of DC and 60 minutes from my Baltimore. Here is the interesting phenomenon though:

I travel a lot, but most of my travel is, not surprising, into cities or very busy resorts outside of cities. In the last twelve months, I have been to Las Vegas five times, Philadelphia five or six times, NYC, New Orleans, Chicago, Phoenix, and on and on. I get hotel rooms, and I sleep like a baby listening to the lull of the city around me. I look for hotels that are in the thick of things, and will often pass over an option if it promises to be quiet.

This move has proven to me that I am, unquestionably, a city girl. I've got nothing against the suburbs-- I won't go into the irony of getting towed and having a (likely) pothole induced blow out within two weeks of leaving a city known for towing cars and not fixing potholes. It's just that I cannot sleep here. It's too quiet. I find myself in bed, staring at the ceiling and wondering what awful things are lurking about in silence.

In Baltimore, I always knew what was lurking about outside, because I could hear it. Whatever lurked in my neighborhood did so less than ten feet from my bedroom window. And sometimes, in addition to the things that bump in the night, you would hear people laughing, or music from a nearby car, dogs barking, and yes, even rats scurrying. And those things lulled me. I love the energy in a city, of knowing that there are so many possible things that could happen, and so many of them are right within your reach.

I know I have a few followers that are city-to-suburb transplants. How do you sleep?