Getting ready to roll out of our nation's capitol and it's been alternately fun and frustrating. Some lessons learned: 1. Me and my 86-pound mutt can indeed stowaway in the women's dorm for three days. 2. The money I saved on hotel bills was made up for in parking fines outside the building. 3. Chicken bones abound. 4. My daughter is as scrappy as I am. More on that later. 5. People wear ridiculous shoes - both tourists and the millions of office workers on the … [Read more...]
Saturday, a.k.a. Shudderday
July 18, 2011 By
I've been so lucky in my travels so far, sunny weather, cordial people. Well, the guy who nearly ran me over on Fulton Street in Brooklyn with his BMW wasn't too friendly. But overall, I have no reason to have the heebie-jeebies. You know, nervous, like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. But I do. Damnit, I do. Saturday, I had the shudders bad. I was about 23 miles northeast of Baltimore when traffic on I-95 came to an absolute standstill. A wreck, … [Read more...]
Bad Boy, Bad Boy, Watcha Gonna Do?
July 9, 2011 By
Sunset just west of Toledo last night and I was feeling all zenny, enjoying the late afternoon shadows laid across all manner of barns, big and small, old and new, red and weathered beyond all palette recognition and my GPS told me I just eleven miles out from my Motel 6 stop for the night. Remember, I’m on a budget, as in: I don’t have a job. Son Pat had booked it for me, as I was too busy trying to get out of the snarl of traffic in Chicago, (bad taste after a lovely … [Read more...]
Chicago, Chicago, It’s A Helluva Town
July 9, 2011 By
Libby digs it. In my next life, when I’m independently wealthy and can afford a condo in Chicago, NYC or L.A., she’ll fit right into the urban pace, a.k.a., nine walks per day. Seriously. That’s how many times I had to take her outside to convince her that it was indeed okay to unleash her innards. I understand, humans get kinda blocked on the road too, or so I’ve heard. She got it, eventually, like seven blocks from the condo. But what she really thought was that I was … [Read more...]
Fear and High Water…
June 30, 2011 By
I want to talk to you about fear -- fear over this impending journey. It rises and falls like the water in my basement last night. I have an 82-year-old house. We had torrential rain. Sometimes the storm sewers swell beyond capacity, and the water runs backwards, up through the floor drains in old basements like mine. I know I should have installed a sump pump, but college, cars, and emergency appendectomies were more important. So we bail, we mop. We cast a wary eye … [Read more...]
We’re Going
June 25, 2011 By
I’m taking my dog on a road trip. Not a short one, a long one. It’ll be about 8,400 miles, more or less, by the time we get back home. Lord knows what I’ll find when I return. I planted drought-resistant flowers just to hedge my bets. I hope they make it, because we’re going. I’m quitting my job and Libby and I are going. I may run out of gas, fall on my ass and not even make it home, but we’re going. It’s Libby’s fault. She started it. Her acceptance of the … [Read more...]
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