Bob and Bite

*gasp!*

In numbers:
1133: Interstate miles driven in a 25′ Penske truck over three days.
11: days until Time Warner can juice our stylish new flat with connectivity.
13: minutes it took me to walk from the front porch to SU’s Bird Library where
I’m tapping into AirOrange wifi.
5:3: Kansas City:Syracuse ratio of  box and furniture carriers who (in
addition to the three of us) worked to shuffle all of our belongings on and off
the truck on Monday and Wednesday.
2: hotel nights spent in towns beginning with "E" this week: Effingham, Ill. and
Erie, Pa.
0: available hotel rooms on Tuesday night on Exit 24 and 27 of I-90 in Erie. Oh!
There’s a crappy Travelodge at Exit 29. Good enough.

So this is the official blogsyrection.  I’m back online, more or less,
although the only net access I’ll have from now until the 25th will be in the
various wifi zones on SU’s campus.  It’s been raining here, too, which
makes the hoof-route between home and campus longer, wetter, and more
treacherous for my tech-loaded pack.

The trouble with resurfacing here and now is that I’ve lost touch with the
blogs I frequented before all the trav(ai/e)l, fracas and upheaval of late. 
I’ve glanced through some of them, and I really would like to take more time to
catch up, but, well, not today. 

The short of it is that we’re in S-town, safely and so on.  I lost my
driving innocence somewhere en route, discarding it as I drove over curbs,
passed big rigs, pumped diesel fuel, mastered the truckers’ courtesy
flick-of-the-lights as if to say, "Your rear end is sufficiently in front of me
that we won’t smash together when you resume our slow lane."

A few other quips from the past two weeks:

In Iowa (on the way to Wisconsin, then Drummond), I asked Ph., "You see those
fields?  Any idea where the name for corn rows originated?"
Ph.: In Iowa City?

At Elmer’s Restaurant in Escanaba, Mich., they have a breakfast plate called
"Everyone’s Favorite" on the menu. That’s what I had, figuring it would be my
favorite, too. How can it be everyone’s favorite?  It’s perfectly
customizable.  The waitress asked twenty or thirty questions (grits or
hash, etc.).  She also hit us with a "youse" (but, expecting yooper
vernacular, we were ready for it, even though "y’all" dominates the deep midwest).

 Ph. caught two large-mouthed bass at Drummond.  Then winds riled
up waves that rattled the fish basket, that roughed the fish into seagull food. 
Me?  I caught a few glimpses of spectacular sunsets and poison ivy. 

Places we didn’t stop to tour and eat between Akron and Cleveland: Grandpa’s
Cheese Barn.  Places we did stop to tour and eat between St. Ignace and
Mackinac City: Castle Rock and Audie’s. 

Now I should catch up with all the passers-through who’ve recorded their
dreams in Dear
Dream Interpreter

2 Comments

  1. Welcome back.

    Wasn�t there a movie called �Escanaba in da Moonlight?� I saw it once and wasn�t impressed. The comedy was pretty lame. I guess that was because I spent the bulk of my formative years growing up in da �Yoop.�

    We stopped at Audie�s too, on our way back to the land down under. That is, the land down under the Mackinac Bridge. Some call it the land of trolls.

    Audie�s, a restaurant decorated with memoriabilia from the time the Mackinac Bridge was built, and still, a good place to eat.

    And then there are those who believe God�s area code is 906 (the entire Yoop). Haven�t checked lately though.

    The planet definitely changes significantly North of the 45th parallel. Remember the twilight that hung forever into the late night, the clear stars, Milky Way and occasional meteor? Unfortunately, it all seemed so much clearer, when I was a kid.

    In regards to the poison ivy, there was plenty of jewelweed growing all over the place on Drummond. I saw bunches of it along the beach. Just crush the leaves and spread it on the irritated area. It will clear poison ivy up almost immediately. The best thing, it�s free. Better than prescription drugs imported from Canada. Or any drug, if you’re trying to cure poison ivy 🙂

    �You�re gonna need a lotion,
    a calamine lotion.
    You�ll be scratch�n like a hound,
    while that poison ivy�s
    spread�n all around.
    Poison Ivy, Poison Ivy�.�

    From a favorite song.

    �At night time
    when your sleep�n,
    that poison ivy�s
    creep�n all around.�

  2. We watched E. in the Moonlight earlier this summer when we were in Detroit. It was okay. I didn’t get some of the regional jokes about oo-foes, but the premise of being the last fella in town to score a buck was good for a few laughs.

    The ivy has dried, despite no supply of j-weed.

    Good to be back, although it would be nice to have an I-connection from home. So spoiled!

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