A Day Of Travel

5:29 am, Medford, Oregon:

I rounded a sharp curve in the middle of my drive to Medford this morning and saw bright, shiny stars ahead of me. It shocked me because on the other side of that curve, I couldn't see more than two dashed center lines ahead of me in the center of the road. Most of my two-hour drive this morning was through dense fog, which just added to the fun of driving US Highway 199 along the Smith River.

I pulled out of our driveway at 2:50 and I was very glad for that 10-minute cushion when I realized that the fog was NOT going away as I got further from the coast. I always have an out-of-time experience when I travel for a full day, but usually, the sensation sets in much later in the trip. But when the world closes to a car-length of visibility with a wall of white all around you, time doesn't mean much. Except that I had a plane to catch, of course.

(So I spent time in Denver, but it went really fast and I didn't get a chance to open the computer. The flights were both on time, which made things easier.)

8:13 pm, Arlington, VA:

I keep thinking it's really, really late, but then I look at the clock and realize that it's not late HERE and Darcy and Michael might not even be home from work/preschool back at home. Crazy. I'm trying to stay awake long enough to be sure I'll sleep straight through the night.

I stopped at the conference hotel when I got off the metro (after the shuttle and the train and the other metro) and spent a little time at the meet and greet. There was a small group heading out to Adams-Morgan for Ethiopian food and I was very, very tempted to go with them, but I'm too tired and too traveled-out to get back on the metro.

I was forgetting that most of the people at this training would be farmers' market people, but it seems like a good group of folks are here. It will be fun to hear what kinds of projects people are funding with these grants.