Wanted to let everyone know that I successfully made (endured) the 1100 mile
round trip to Philly this weekend to pick up the eldest at college.  She
was, literally, the only student left on campus, so we had no help in
loading the car.  Driving 550 miles, packing a van, sleeping on a hotel bed
and driving another 550 the next day underscored the fact that I'm too old
for this sort of thing.

Anyone who has driven the PA. turnpike knows that you do NOT take your eyes
off the wheel even for a microsecond.  No shoulders and big concrete
dividing walls ensure that if you wander out of your lane there will be
trouble.  Made great use of the "emergency turnoffs" along the way.

The weather, as many of you who live in the northeast and midwest know, was
miserable.  There was a stretch of eastbound turnpike, about 50 miles west
of Harrisburg, that had literally washed away from water flowing down the
adjacent mountainside.

All in all, it was a great trip headed east.  Lots of time for quiet
reflection, some lectures on CD that I'd been dying to hear and copious
notes in my "roadside beasties" journal:  The foxes are out--some with kits,
roadside groundhogs in that ubiquitous, sad-but-hilarious death pose--on the
back with all four legs straight out and up, and 37 (yes, 37) deer who lost
playing chicken with the freeway cars.  All I could think of was the fine
protein that was just going to waste by the side of the road.

KYle