Day something

I finally completed the outward leg of my journey, having arrived at my sisters place yesterday. It's great to see her and to be here. I'm as productive here as I was at home. Sleep, TV, web surfing, napping, eating; repeat as necessary.

I did notice something a bit odd on the drive. The other day, while driving through Nevada, I noticed a road sign for the exit for Independence Valley, which was immediately followed by a road sign telling us not to pick up hitch-hikers as this area had a local jail. I came around the corner to find the Independence Valley and a jail. How meanly named is this place? Hey, we're going to transfer you to the new jail? It's name? Independence. Psych. Enjoy the view, through the bars. We're going to take a break, but you've got to stay here. No independence for you. Could it be a more inappropriately named location? If it wasn't so odd, it'd be cruel.

Day 2 on the road

From Belle Fouche South Dakota to Evanston Wyoming in one day. I'm tired. I used to be able to drive further than this in one day. Maybe my driving stamina was diminished in my year-long removal from the ability to make long trips. The roads are good. I do miss being in the mountains. I don't miss driving through them at night, so you pull over and get some sleep. I went through some towns with interesting names; Chugwater and Wamsutter, both in Wyoming. They don't sound as though they were derived from Native American words, but what do I know? My best guess for Wamsutter is that somebody from the Bronx moved to this town, kept on saying "Was the matter" with that distinct New York accent, and nobody could understand him. He said it all the time, and they got used to it, so after they finally hung him for being from the Bronx, in his memory, they named the town for his favorite phrase, albeit misspelled.

Oh, I have made an amazing discovery. I guess this tool was invented while I was in Iraq, but I was lucky enough to find it shortly after my return. It is a cellularized telephonic device. It conveys the spoken word, typed word, and pictures through the air, apparently by magic. I think everybody should have one of these things. I forgot an alarm clock on this trip. What do you know, but my cellularized telephonic device has a built-in alarm clock. And as I moved further west, from one time zone to another, I attempted to reset the time on the device, only to find that somehow, more than likely by magic, the time had reset itself. The device is far too small for gremlins to live inside, so it must be magic.

On the road again

I have to admit that I do miss posting random comments on the blog. Not enough, apparently, to post regularly, but enough to re-visit every now and then.

I am on the road to California to spend Thanksgiving with my sister. I'm at Day 1 of the traveling. My plan was to drive as far as I could and then look for a hotel. I am in Belle Fouche, South Dakota at the local Motel 6. This is the first hotel with an empty room since I went through Dickinson. I forgot to figure in a few things; oil fields, hunters and Friday. I figured it must to time to stop as I was imagining deer stepping onto the road. Yeah; good time to stop. I had the opportunity to feel like I was driving a pickup again. The other day I was stopped at a red light behind a Mini Coup. Sitting up a little bit straighter in the drivers seat of my PT Cruiser, I could see over the top of this skateboard on wheels. I felt like a giant.

The drive is going fast. First off, I've driven about 4 hours after dark, and that's got to be the way to travel across the bland prairie; you can't see it, so you can't be bored by it. But more importantly, I tried something I've been telling others about for years. I downloaded several books from iTunes and have been listening to them on the drive. It really does make the trip go faster. It's good while you're on the open road, but trying to concentrate on John Hodgman reading from his new book, "More Information than you Require" and concentrating on finding a hotel in town just won't work. Push pause; find hotel. It'll be there in the morning to keep on reading.