Thirty Thirty

The name of this post comes not from the famous Winchester lever action rifle (yes, Harry, it's on my list of firearms I'd like to own, specifically a Winchester pre-1964 model which I recently found with a prohibitive price), but from the miles we traversed during our 13 day, seven state road trip. 3,030 miles. Most of the driving days were well over 500 miles. Such as Chicago to Sioux Falls, or Sioux Falls to Sterling, CO. We had adventures, from nearly being stomped on by a parade balloon to making a Thanksgiving feast in a hotel room to being struck by a deer on the highway just east of Iowa Falls. Yes, a deer hit us - we didn't hit the deer. Story to follow. We got to see family. We didn't get to spend near enough time as we would have liked to have spent with all the family that we saw. We saw every sort of weather immaginable. We saw just about every road condition imaginable. And with our usual accomplished traveller's aplomb, we survived, thrived, and made it home safely last night around 6:30 PM (MST) to tell the tale.

I didn't blog or even check email for 13 days, though I had planned to. I'm a super geek when it comes to techno gadgets. 2 digital cameras, one video cam, and two laptops and several hard drives accompanied us on the trip. I learned that I don't need to carry that much technoid stuff. With said stuff, I spent time on photos and video, since I got a new cheap videocam just before the trip. The vids actually came out pretty good. They look crappy on a 2.5" LCD screen, but pretty good in Windows Media Player. I'll select those I think are good enough for your perusal and inspection and either post them here or send in a broadcast email.

Today's Good Thing: I am home. I am in Western Colorado, Happy Valley, possibly the most wonderful place God created. South of the 49th parallel that is, Karen. And west of Nebraska. I am home.

Much more to follow later. You can check out Grace's blog for a few pictures and her account of our time in Chi-town. And yes, per her narrative, it was an attempted pick for my wallet. I've been through it enough times to know what it was. This one was very amateur. He made the mistake of looking back. And saw a camera in my hand. Bad form, Artful Dodger...

But as they say, no autopsy, no foul. I let it go and did my best to get that stupid "Dominic the Donkey" song out of my head. Grace, your place in the will is now in jeopardy for including a link to that song on your blog.

Much more later.
And Much Love.
Jay/Dad/whatever