I'm one of those weirdoes you've heard about but didn't know actually existed.

("Wow," say the people who read this who know me well. "Odd opening, Eric. Try something we don't know.")

Specifically, I'm one of those weirdoes who loves to travel. To climb in a car and go. To get on a plane or train or boat and move on to new places. I love it. I love every part of it, from loading the car to getting home at the end all groggy. It's just fun.

This translates into a joy of driving that I had to put on the shelf for a couple of weeks while my foot recovered from its latest pains. Driving someplace is probably my favorite way to travel. I've done everything from three hour day trips to thirteen hour day trips (Ithaca, New York to Fort Kent, Maine via Canada) to transcontinental journeys. When my father and I went out to Seattle (I was moving, he was keeping me company), we elected to visit my sister -- which meant a "slight detour" to Denver. For those not playing along at home with your maps, Denver Colorado is not between New York State (where I had been living) and Seattle, Washington. Our little detour added a day or two to the trip. But it was a blast, it meant that I got to see nice big chunks of the most impressive parts of the Rocky Mountains, I got to see the archtypical Purple Mountains Majesty in Utah (they're there, they're purple, and looking at them at sunset, when we saw them, I can believe Brigham Young took one look at them and thought God had sent him there to found his church). Coming back we took another route, but went out of our way to visit friends of mine in Illinois (hi Amy!) and Windsor, Ontario (hi James and Chris!). We also happened to pass through Sturgis at the same time as the annual Harley rally there, which meant we spent twenty straight hours on the road with not a single hotel with a vacancy to stop and rest at.

All this means I'm excited about tomorrow. Hitting the road again, heading for Ithaca, which is one of my four absolute favorite places on Earth (along with, in no particular order, Wolfeboro, Seattle, and pretty much the whole state of Maine ignoring the bits around Bangor). I lived in Ithaca from 1988-1991, then back there from 1993-1994. If I didn't have the best job on Earth, I'd be thinking about going back. (And, before I got my current job, it had been a possibility). It remains my "fallback." I know that if things get bad and I need to slink out of town, Frank will put me up long enough for me to find my own place in Ithaca.

There's no work there, of course. Especially in my field. Folks at Cornell fall in love with Ithaca and decide to stay, meaning you have people with advanced Ivy League degrees taking jobs in bagel shops, much less doing Manager of Information Technology jobs. I'd have to wait four more years, then apply at the high school or something (experience can nuke big sounding degrees, if done in moderation).

It's Renn Fest time, which means I'll get to take Russ to the Faire -- probably not for the whole day (which is a pity, as the Faire is best 'Cannon to Cannon' as they say) and definitely not in garb (if I'm showing the Faire off, I don't want to be entertaining the crowd at the same time, and I'm preconditioned to perform if I'm dressed for the occasion). It'll still be cool, though. And, of course, seeing Frank, seeing Becky, seeing John, seeing Lisa, meeting my Action Niece Molly, and so on and so forth. I'm looking forward to this all.

But I'm also looking forward to the actual traveling. I get a long book on tape, sit back, relax, and let Garrison Keillor lull my brain while I drive. Or listen to a Heinlein on tape. It's all very nice. The Saturn is very comfortable and very responsive. My usual route from Wolfeboro is a Shunpiker's through Vermont, then hitting the highway in New York. It can be very pretty and very relaxing. The trip itself becomes an anodyne to job and teaching stress.

So, of course, today I've got clothes to deal with, and auto maintenance, and checking out route information, and hopefully getting my paycheck a scosch early so I can relax about my next car payment, and so on and so forth....

Tomorrow, this will likely be a brief entry. Then, I'll not be uploading anything until Monday Night, though I may get a chance to actually write entries and hold them in reserve until then. If I don't manage to get something done before I go tomorrow, I'll see you Monday.