Location: Outer Banks, North Carolina, USA

Published: World Hum

The night before we’d depart for our summer vacation in the Outer Banks, I’d find my father fretting in the driveway over how best to strap down the X-Cargo rooftop carrier and the logistics of packing a week’s worth of provisions into the family vehicle (always some variation of a mini van or station wagon). Already delineated in the back seat were clear if imaginary lines that my brother and sister were not to cross under threat of annoying me, the dominant eldest. In the morning, my mother rose early to make deviled eggs, fill the thermos with iced tea and organize the cooler into layers to match our snacking progression throughout the six-hour drive. In travel, as at home, life revolved around filling our stomachs.