Random Stuff, Vol. 1

Stuff I forgot to mention in earlier posts.  No particular narrative thread here:

·      Started noticing more and more American cars starting in mid-Ohio and fewer and fewer imports.  The trend continued as I went west until I got near Chicago, when the BMWs, Volvos, and Lexuses were everywhere again.

·      Somewhere in Ohio a truck with Saskatchewan plates passed me.  Cool.

·      Also somewhere in Ohio one of those ultralight-parasail-glider plane thingies flew over me (very slowly).  It was one of those things that looks like a lawn chair mounted to a three wheeler with an industrial fan stuck on the back, and sounded like it was propelled by a mini-bike engine. It dangled from a huge parachute – not one of those fixed wing kite doodads.  How do those things build up enough speed to inflate the kite?  I prayed the entire time it didn’t fall on me.

·      We were in Wisconsin nearly two days before we saw a (real) cow.  Where the heck does all the cheese come from?  They had fiberglass cows at the custard place, but those don’t count.  They must be hiding them somewhere.

·      The roads seem to get worse the further north and west we went.  At one point I was beginning to think by the time we got to Wyoming the interstates would be nothing more than tire ruts.  Seriously, I won’t complain about the PA turnpike anymore.  Things improved in Iowa today, though.  But if you’re going to Wisconsin or Illinois any time soon don’t bother getting an alignment before hand.

·      We’ve gotten pretty good at using the wireless modem in the car.  Paul was like a personal GPS last night, navigating me around Milwaukee in real time.  It was pretty cool.  He even utilized street view in Google Maps today so we would know what it looked like at the exit near Field of Dreams. Crazy stuff.  I’m old school though; I still refer to the atlas occasionally.

·      Despite that technology, I’m back to my favorite vacation maneuver – the U-turn.  It has nothing to do with Paul’s co-pilot skills and everything to do with me looking around like my head’s on a swivel when I’m driving.  I probably need to pay more attention to road signs and less to buildings.  Or not.

·      We just passed a hand painted billboard in Iowa that read, “Hell is made for deadbeat Moms.” Yikes. 

·      Trying to think up slogans for Iowa.  Maybe, “Kansas, with curves”, or “If you lived here you’d be bored now”.  I like: “Corn, the other, other white meat” or “Déjà vu sounds cooler than ‘no you didn’t pass this already it just all looks the same’”. Feel free to suggestion your own.

·      Thanks to the WoYAs for the great cards!  We keep one particular card in the front seat so we can break into a verse of “Celebrate” when the spirit moves us.

That’s enough weird for a little while.  Snyder out.