Logistics are kicking my butt. Apparently it is not possible to fly directly from Kansas City to Wichita, nor from Wichita to Tulsa on a weekday morning. You have to go around by Dallas instead, and by the time you've done that, you've spent as much time from first takeoff to second landing as you would if you drove. And that's not even counting time to get to the airport, check in, deal with the rental car, and so on. I think I'm just going to take the iPod, maybe check out a couple of audiobooks from the library, and tell myself that a road trip through the Heartland is a much nicer way to spend a spring morning that sitting behind a desk. Maybe I'll take a Bill Staines CD along, too:
I have known the wind. It's been a friend all of my days,
And I have seen it dance, across the prairie when it plays.
And I have known the freedom too, of a wheatfield's rolling scene,
And they have never left me blue, so play your song for me.
I'm a sucker for appropriate music, and Staines has a lot of evocative songs about American places. I used to drive Rudder and out friend Bob nuts with Staines' song Lost Mine of the Chisos when we'd go backpacking in Big Bend.
The trip I leave on tomorrow has its share of complexities too: five 2-hour classes to teach in two days, and two piffle-y friends to hook up with Wednesday evening, though at least that latter part is a more pleasant complexity. I'm really not particualrly looking forward to finding my way out of Newark from the airport tomorrow night, either.
I'm really hoping I can manage without much driving on the Germany trip next month, but the way things are going, I have Dark Fears.
Posted by dichroic at March 27, 2006 01:13 PM