Day 1: Off Like a Herd of Turtles

Hello -- I am actually writing from the morning of Day 2. We have already experienced a minor tragedy on our journey: It seems my laptop has died. Last night when Conrad and I arrived at our hotel about 120 miles from St. Louis, I thought I was going to begin blogging properly. But, alas, my macbook had a blank blue screen. I hope I haven't lost some writing forever. In any case, the blogging will most likely not be as grand as I hoped unless some computer guru comes to save me in MO tonight. I had photos from our drive through Kentucky that I really wanted to post. We also drove through West Virginia and Virginia, neither of which I felt like photographing. West Verginia, in fact, made me feel like I was on the verge of being poisoned by a corporation with all those coal plants and a big fat nuclear power plant spewing stuff into the sky and little houses practically on the highway. It's like they guarantee you breathe in poison in West Virginia. In Bland, Virginia Conrad walked out of the men's bathroom with a ten dollar bill in his hand. He says he "found" it. We had sushi in Louisville. Kentucky is heartbreakingly beautiful and we of course had Cat Power on all the way through. Rolling hills with a few isolated trees upon them. A relief after the "we're all going to hell in a handbasket" feeling of West Virginia, the poisoning power central of our nation. We are off to St. Louis in a few minutes, where we pick up Aaron. Then we are off to Columbia where our first reading takes place at 8pm. Wish us luck and pray for my laptop! Oh and everyone here keeps calling Conrad "Mam" so I have renamed him Gertrude. -- M