gwax's rumblings

Since I returned to Massachusetts and got my com­puter set up, I’ve been mean­ing to write about my trip back from Minnesota. As time goes by, I see that as less and less likely to hap­pen so, instead, I will give you a very brief sum­mary so that the impor­tant points can be touched upon.

Having made only a few hours of head­way, my clutch decided to wear out 20 miles north of Madison, WI. This was incred­i­bly unpleas­ant, requir­ing that I be towed to Madison to have my clutch com­pletely replaced. As bad as it was, my clutch going was not all bad; I was able to reac­quaint myself with my old friend Amrys, whom I had not seen in far too long and who hap­pens to cur­rently be liv­ing in Madison. Amrys was friendly enough to pro­vide me with com­pany, a couch to crash on and a brief overview of Madison, includ­ing an intro­duc­tion to a quite pleas­ant break­fas­terie. My car was fixed by noon the day after it broke and I was able to get under­way once more. The car pro­vided no more prob­lems from that point.

On leav­ing Minnesota, I had com­menced lis­ten­ing to Frank Herbert’s Dune in audio book for­mat, which is a mon­strously long audio endeavor. The sec­ond leg of the Journey took me to Ithaca, NY and I was only just fin­ish­ing Dune shortly before I arrived. Now, I must say, as a way to enter­tain myself dur­ing 17 – 19 hours of dri­ving, lis­ten­ing to Dune served fan­tas­ti­cally well. Listening to Dune kept my atten­tion so well that I didn’t, even once, find myself bored by the dri­ving and com­pletely failed to notice Ohio, even though receipts clearly show that I stopped in Ohio.

I stopped in Ithaca, NY so that I might be able to visit with a few friends that I have who attend Cornell. Over the course of one day and two nights, I spent some time hang­ing out with my friend Liz, some time hang­ing out with my friend Hannah and, in 45 min­utes time, picked up a sun­burn. How white must I be to get a sun­burn from 45 min­utes of New York state, early May sun. It was a good time, which was fol­lowed by the final leg of my jour­ney, the Ithaca, NY to Concord, MA stretch.

The Ithaca, NY to Concord, MA leg of the jour­ney was pretty much unevent­ful and filled with the fan­tas­ti­cally amus­ing audio book ren­di­tion of The Areas Of My Expertise by John Hodgman. I would like to go on record highly rec­om­mend­ing The Areas Of My Expertise.

There you have it, a brief sum­mary of my pil­grim­age back from Minnesota.