Musings

Road Trip: Day 29

We settled this evening in a motel we stayed at on this leg of the journey home last year: maybe the best kept lodging secret in this friendly state--a region memorialized on a certain album by a certain famous New Jersey singer-songwriter back when I was a kid. The motel is golden retriever friendly, is reasonably priced, has complimentary high-speed internet. What's not to like? Plus we lucked out and go to hear Donald Fagen and Walter Becker interviewed on XM Radio on the last stretch of the drive today. Becker was his usual articulate but smarmy self; Fagen was charmingly taciturn. I am excited--just days now till I'm in their presence. Dinner tonight was cheap (read screwcap) red wine, supermarket roast chicken, cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, and roasted garlic artisan bread. We are nearing the heartbreaking last pages of Gatsby, our summer solstice ritual deferred to the drive home. It's been a great trip, but after a month I am surely ready to return to "real life," especially after an anxiety dream last night about being unprepared in my job. Yikes. I need to get those syllabi written. And that academic article for October. October, in my experience, comes quickly.

My favorite road snack this year is Rold Gold's multigrain honeywheat pretzels. Best road drink is Sobe Green Tea.

Bad road lunch today: a BK Angus steakburger. Made a mess of my shirt as I tried to scarf it down at the wheel. Yuck. I am thinking of starting a website that rates road foods to aid drivers in roadtrip lunch choices. Anything with any kind of goopy special sauce will get a low rating.

Steely Dan on tour.
NYC to be visited at month's end.
A new Woody Allen movie coming out in weeks.
The Tigers in first place.

I remind myself of these things so I don't feel like the summer is suddenly over now that this trip is coming to an end tomorrow night.