I'm taking a little break from filling boxes and taking down pictures and wrapping delicate things in newspaper to watch the DNC convention via streaming video (since I don't have a TV.) In three days, a truck is going to come, and take all of my stuff away, to go to California. The next day, I drop Ruth off at the airport, and embark on my solo journey across country. I'm really looking forward to the trip. I'm thinking of it as part retreat, part vision quest, part liminal experience. It's a good thing I love to drive (Ruth doesn't). I love the idea that I'll get to really see and experience the country between where I live now, and where I'll be living. Flying always makes the place I arrive in surreal - I never really quite feel like I've arrived. But traveling by surface - car, train, etc., makes me really know I have arrived. I'm going the northern route - from New York, Ohio, Indiana, through Chicago, up through Wisconsin and a corner of Minnesota. I'll be going to South Dakota, and go through the Badlands. I'm going to drive through Wyoming, and visit Yellowstone. Then through Idaho. It's not clear whether I'll head straight down from Idaho to Nevada, then CA, or go through Oregon to Portland, then down the coast. The latter sounds much more fun, but I don't know how tired I'll be, and what I'll want to do. But in any event, I expect the trip to take me close to a week. I'll be blogging and tweeting along the way, of course (I'm going to put my tweets in the sidebar here.) And I hope to take pictures, and take in the full experience.