Oklahoma

It galls me that I don't think I can check off Oklahoma. When I was in Wichita, Kansas with Habitat for Humanity, I'm pretty sure we talked about driving south and going into Oklahoma just for the heck of it. But I'm also pretty sure we never did it. (We spent 48 hours in a van that week just to get to Kansas and back, so I guess it's understandable.)

Then a few years later, my friend and I did a week-long driving trip around the south, going from Nashville to New Orleans to Houston to Dallas/Fort Worth to Caddo Valley, Ark. where I left my transmission (long story for another time), and back to Nashville. I'm pretty sure I drove through Texarkana, which is only about a quarter inch from Oklahoma on the map.

So I had two perfectly-good opportunities to set foot in Oklahoma, and I flubbed them both. Oh, well... Next time I have an opportunity to visit, I'll snap it up. Although perhaps I should learn more about it first -- the only thing I know off the top of my head is that it's "where the wind comes sweeping down the plains."

Vermont -- the final (east of the Mississippi) frontier

I just filled in Vermont on my "states visited" map below. I talked to my parents, and turns out that they're pretty sure we went through Vermont on one of our Grizwold-esque New England summer vacations.

The car on the right is a near facsimile of the Chevy Malibu we drove on most of those trips, except it's a few years newer. This picture comes from the web site of a guy who apparently spent a great deal of time tripping out this 20-year-old station wagon. "The ultimate goal," he writes, "is to turn this old wagon into a sleeper, powered by 425 cubic inches of Oldsmobile V8 :o)))))))"

Everyone needs a hobby, I guess...

I'm probably nuts...

... but I just made a plane reservation for Mexico, leaving on April 7 and coming back on the 12th. These people almost scared me off, but then some of these people gave me a nudge in the right direction.

Now I just have to figure out where I'm staying and what I'm doing while I'm there. Finding someone else crazy enough to come along would also be a plus!

South of the Border?

I have a very definite case of springtime wanderlust. Now I'm comtemplating a spur-of-the-moment trip to Mexico City during Holy Week. Instead of doing my homework, of course.

Random belated pictures

Here are pictures from my trip to DC and New Jersey last month. They are of many different things, and I haven't bothered to caption them, so you'll have to use your imagination a bit. Buried somewhere in there are pictures of George Washington's diary, a snowstorm, a map signed by Robert E. Lee, and the abandoned church in Camden where my brother is working. Like I said, kind of random.