Report from the Road–Back Home in Cincinnati

Sometimes I forget how exhausting driving can be. As of today, I have driven just over 4,000 miles. Yesterday was the turning point of the trip when I started heading west after spending a day in Williamstown to visit my alma mater, America’s finest small college.

I had hoped to blog from there, but needed a password to use the wireless in the new student center and didn’t know (until yesterday morning) that there was a coffee shop in town with wireless. It was great being back, but I really missed being a student. I did get to meet with my French Professor (and major advisor), now emeritus, who was one of the few conservatives on the faculty when I was there. Alas, that my favorite Political Science professor, a Marxist, also alas emeritus, was in the Bahamas (alas for me, not him).

I had hoped to blog last night from Erie, Pennsylvania but was too exhausted after driving across New York State. Today was a much nicer drive, mostly across my home state while I listened to Joseph Ellis lead a course on Patriots: Brotherhood of the American Revolution. Despite his soporific voice, the lectures were interesting, mostly offering his perspective on information already mostly familiar to this patriot, but knowledge I constantly delight in rediscovering.

I was reminded that the Revolutionary War was the longest in US History (lasting over 8 years from Lexington and Concord until the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783) and that over 1,000 British troops died at Bunker Hill.

I had a most pleasant lunch with a blog reader near Columbus.

I have since arrived in Cincinnati where I had a chance to visit with my Dad before coming over to my brother’s house and then having the great honor of taking the Second Eldest PatriotNieceWest out for dinner. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed being able to tell this wonderful and most intelligent young lady that she could order anything on the menu, then taking her next door to Graeter’s for the finest ice cream in the Midwest and again letting her order whatever she wanted. Back home at her Dad’s house, she read some of The Hobbit to me while I delighted that she enjoyed this most magnificent work.

I regret that I have not had more time to write on this trip, but here (as in New York), I would rather have spent time with my family than blogging.

I have had many (what appear to me to be) blogworthy insights on this trip and hope I can decipher my notes when I do get time to blog.

I guess the big thing I have learned is that I should have taken more time on this trip. I would have liked to have lingered in Williamstown, delighting in the beauty of the fall colors on the hills of western Massachusetts as I was reminded that I saw similar colors when I first visited the college, a beauty which helped me to decide to apply to that fine school.

Well, tomorrow, I’m going to spend some time with my family, taking my niece to school, then breakfasting with my Dad and brother before seeing the latter’s new house (currently under construction) and then lunching with my Mom. After that I head off to St. Louis to see a cousin and his two very adorable daughters (my first cousins once removed).