Escaped Thoughts

If all has gone according to plan, we are currently passed out in our new apartment—Woohoo!

If the cable guy is on time (note the naive optimism), we should have internet by tomorrow afternoon, and I'll return to fresh, live posts instead of this canned nonsense.

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We are on the road again, heading for California. I hear they've got women, whiskey and gold!

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We are currently (again, barring disaster) recuperating in the mountains of Colorado with Laura's aunt, in order to be refreshed and invigorated when we strike out again. I hope to take some good pictures out here, as it's rumored to be beautiful.

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We are striking out once again, with two days of corn to look forward to. I'm expecting the drive to be about as exciting as this post, if even that.

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This post is brought to you post-departure, transcending the mists of time, through the magic of Blosxom. Barring some sort of hang-up or disaster with the movers, I'm currently on the road, heading for my first pit-stop: Chicago.

The last night of near-final prep was busy, but not as bad as we expected. In part, it's because we found that there is a certain amount of fun in watching the apartment regress to the barren state we remember from moving in. Plus, of course, the excitement of being ready to go at last!

We'll see everyone in a week and a half! Stop in from time to time, as there are a few more canned updates biding their time until the moment is ripe.

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Laura and I have been trying in vain to find something of interest to stop and see along I-80 between Chicago and Colorado, and coming up empty. All the good stuff seems to have been saved for I-90, so that I could be jealous of my friend who's simultaneously making a cross-country road trip the other way, but further north. I've taken to joking about stopping and seeing the world's largest ball of twine, since I figured that's about the most interesting thing the Iowa-Nebraska region of I-80 would have to offer.

Well, yesterday on a whim I actually Googled for the world's largest ball of twine and made two discoveries: First, that there are at least three different "world's largest" twine balls, all using slightly different definitions, and second, that the nearest one to our route is in Kansas. That's right, I-80 is so boring that even the world's largest ball of twine is too exciting for it.

I hope that stretch isn't patrolled too carefully.

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I spent a three days in Chicago last weekend, and I can summarize it as follows: it's big. Or at least, its buildings are. I came back to Cleveland and one of the first things that struck me is that here I can count the big skyline buildings on the fingers of one hand, and still have enough left over to snap my fingers. That's really not the case in Chicago.

Things I liked best:

• Having drinks at the top of the Hancock building, and watching a lightening storm over the Chicago skyline.
• The Art Institute of Chicago. Among other things they have (to quote a stupid tourist Laura and I once overheard in the Musée d'Orsay) "a pretty good impressionist gallery".
• Seeing a big hipster district. These people were, to paraphrase, cool enough to keep a side of meat in for a week, and so hip they had trouble seeing over their pelvises. This is a neighborhood consisting primarily of used bookstores, used music stores, chic cafés, and stores selling $3000-$4000 chairs by famous designers. Interestingly, hip and trendy fashions and furniture are all almost directly out of the 70's. Disco and bad hair should be back any day now.
• Much better public transit than we have in Cleveland
• And, of course, seeing my brothers, which was the point of the trip.

Much fun was had by all. If you have the means, I highly recommend it.

Category: Travel

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