getting started

"In long-range planning for a trip, I think there is a private conviction that it won't happen. As the day approached, my warm bed and comfortable house grew increasingly desirable and my dear wife incalculably precious." --Steinbeck

Of course, it is the incalculableness of my wife Janis that drives me to go. So while I hate leaving home, I am driven to go by both the road and the destination. I was delayed in leaving, but only slightly and not by motivational forces; just by staying out too late the night before departure, and by the amount of work I left to the last available minute.

The drive to Moline was uneventful, although more tiring than usual. Illinois, land of Lincoln and birthplace of Reagan. Probably the bookends of what was the republican party. I grew tired and for first time ever, used a rest stop.... to rest. Steinbeck described these new and pristine inventions in 1960. I think they hit a low point a while back, but are pretty nice again. The unchanged quality of them is they keep you separated from place. You travel over the land, not through it, and a rest stop offers few clues of where you've been.

Arrival in Moline led immediately to a rescue mission. My Hyundai picking up nephew Joe from his dying Dodge pick-up.....no symbolism there!

This is a familiar stop for Luci, where she ignores the cows and chases the rabbits. Here she cannot be described as a goldendoodle without raising eyebrows. Here she is 1/2 standard poodle, 1/2 golden retriever (as if an unfortunate event had happened to her mother) and 3/4 bad haircut (to explain a dog clearly neither poodle or golden). Steinbeck's Charley was a dandy of a groomed dog. Luci is a tomboy.

More about Illinois and Iowa tomorrow as I have seen some of both. Tomorrow I think I am heading to KCMO with hope of seeing the Tigers play, but it will take great luck for it all to happen.