Thank you, Ike Eisenhower

Down and safe in Chicago, at the con hotel a day before the convention's earliest event. There were folks who'd take me in if I asked, but after the drive and before the con, it's a bit nice to have some time to spread out and be alone.

Notes from the road:
Fact: You can go on the Super 8 website and enter your route and it will list all the hotels along that route.

Additional fact: Youngstown Ohio is a little over 5 hours from work, making it a good not-quite-halfway stopping point. Also, that Super 8 is much cheaper than the ones near Pittsburgh or Cleveland.

Fact: The Youngstown Super 8 is sandwiched between a huge 24-hour truck stop and a strip joint.

Additional fact: The woman at the Comfort Inn said that a lot of people mentioned the previous fact when they showed up to check in.


Things I am not used to hearing my GPS unit say: "Stay on this route for 236 miles. Then take exit to the left. Stay on that route 197 miles."


I have eaten in Germany; had one of the best meals of my life there. German food is nothing like "Dutch" food; Das Dutchman Essenhaus essentially served me gravy on potatoes and white bread with a little turkey and a side of bread rolls.


Because tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I'll take the opportunity to say: Thank you, Ike Eisenhower. I'm sure at the time people bitched and moaned that you were a socialist (or, considering your influences, a Nazi) and that the government both shouldn't and couldn't create an effective road system, just as I'm sure people bitched that painting lines on the road was creating a nanny state and coddling people who couldn't learn how to properly drive, so thank you, Dr. June McCarroll for not taking "no" (or "shut up") for an answer and making a fuss until California painted lines and lanes and the rest of the world realized what a good idea that was.

Thank you both, from someone who just used the ability to drive quickly and safely across five states.