Mr. The-glass-is-half-empty, It Can't be Done

Oh for goodness' sake. Last night I drove 230 miles, on time, on target, through the greater New York Metropolitan area and I arrived at my destination in 3:45. If we have 8 hours of daylight after we land at O'Hare, I'm certain one can cover the distance between Chicago and St. Louis. 300 miles. Last week I drove 500 miles in 8 hours. It's May. I have ordered up excellent weather. It will be good, damn it!

What's more, you can try to kid these people, but you've been getting upgrades on Marriott points and frequent flyer miles for years--a perk not found at roadside dives. But far be it from me to spoil your fun. Drop me off at the Marriott and stay where you choose. I sure hope they take credit cards.

At some point, I'll post our itinerary so you can check the Marriott website to see which of their properties have spontaneously combusted.

Finally, that is not my photo. I don't look like that. It's not my nose, hair and certainly not my burgeoning jowels (when did THOSE happen?). I am tall and blonde. Go ahead. I dare ya. (For that matter, Mr. Willie-Nelson-wanna-be doesn't look like that either. )

T Minus 24 - Countdown

I’ve added the other interstate shields under the Route 66 one for an important reason. While we intend to follow Route 66 for this trip, more often than not we’ll be following it from the interstate. See, we’ve only got eight days, and most of what I’ve read about driving this road is that two weeks is "rushing it". Or so they say. At any rate, it’s not an interstate, which means it won’t be as smooth, and we can’t go as fast as we could on a modern road.

I mention this only because our first day’s drive has to be from Chicago to St. Louis. I’m not sure what time we land at O’Hare, but traveling two-thirds the length of Illinois, then all the way to the Mississippi looks like it could be eight hours on a good road. Making diversionary trips (the whole point of this exercise) will only add to the time.

Not that I mind, mind you. It’s just that due to the circumstances regarding our lodging we need to avoid straying too far from the beaten path.

Or the nearest Marriot. I’m married to a Jewish girl, you know. If you thought for a moment that we’d be tumbling into whichever motel up ahead has a buzzing ‘vacancy’ sign, then you don’t know who we are. Or at least who she is.

Obligatory Cat Picture

Since she mentioned Betsy, and since it seems all blogs require at least one cat photo, I will oblige. This is Betsy. And she only looks longingly at me when I'm not aiming a camera at her.

This is also a medium sized picture, though you can click on it for the full-size version, which in this case is a healthy 800 pixels across. Google runs this operation, right? Only they could give away the hosting for stuff like this, God bless 'em.....

Obligatory Cow Picture

Test post with a small photo added. Actually this is a medium sized photo. It's a cow from last year's Vermont State Fair. As do all animals, this cow was looking longingly at Neil. Sort of the way Betsy looks at Neil. Scratch that. No animal looks at Neil the way Betsy looks at Neil. Not even me.

Greetings from Neil and Sherry!

4/21/07 Just setting up the template to accommodate us in our travails....er....travels.