A little more than a week and I’ll be on my way to Chicago. I have my route mostly worked out: a weekend in Tahoe, south on 395 to Death Valley, then east on to southern Utah and the big loop through Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, and Canyonlands, at which point I take stock of my time and decide whether to contine south toward Four Corners and New Mexico or more northeast through Colorado toward I-70 and the descent into the flatlands to Kansas City and then north to the city of broad shoulders, and my home for at least the next three years. Hopefully Tippy !McSlippy, now that she has new tires and a relatively healthy transmission, will not disappoint me.

This will be my second drive east and my second attempt to move to Chicago. Back in 1999 I biked east on US 2, making it as far as Wolf Point, Montana, and turning back for a variety of reasons. Then somewhat later in the year I drove a 1980-something Cadillac out to Boston, where I stayed for 9 months before returning west for graduate school. I look forward to doing a little less couch-surfing this time. I have my eye on the lovely brownstones of the Ukranian Village, where two-bedroom apartments go for the obscenely low price of $800 a month, including utilities. The even better news is that buying a place is not out of the question, although I will have to recover for at least a little while from my three months without pay.

So this will probably be my last post for a while. Not to worry: my irrepressable penchant for self-chronicling will no doubt force me to keep a meticulous travel journal in which every species of bird, tree, rock, and human will be noted, and although the days are sadly gone when a young naturalist could publish his travel diaries in scientific journals, they may find their way here eventually.

Au revoir!

(cdm | TempusFugit)