Spending weeks on the road would be fatiguing for most people. Checking in and out of hotels almost every other night, constantly surrounded by unfamiliarity, constantly having to interact with strangers. But I like it.
I did the final stretch from Thunder Bay to Guelph in one day and for most of the drive it felt like a descent back to ground level after being on a cloud for the past month and a bit. The drive this year was a different one as I had hoped. I mentioned previously that I did the drive alone this year, and it was terrific.
Traveling with friends is always terrific, but it's a very different dynamic than traveling alone. When presented with a long eight hour day of driving alone, you really get a chance to sort out things in your head.
I used the 50 hours or so of driving to churn through a slew of Radiolab podcasts, read my first Vonnegut book, and finish Freakonomics, Radiolab is always great listening, One of the hosts, Robert Krulwich can be annoying on occasion, but for the most part, very good listening. (still not quite up to par with This American Life though.)
There's one podcast that stuck out, that really resonated with me. I suggest you listen to it should you want something a little off the beaten path. I should preface by saying that I am not a 'kids' person, I don't particularly enjoy the company of children, and always skip past baby photos on my social feeds and the whole process of becoming parents and everything that comes with it is about as interesting as the manual that came with my microwave. Yet this podcast about a baby to be, had me riveted. If there's anything you take from this post, it should be that you give this a listen.
I also read Slaughterhouse Five- probably Vonnegut's best known novel. Maybe I came in expecting too much, but that book was boring. Perhaps in 1969 it was groundbreaking... but in terms of dystopian fantasy novels, I'd take Orwell over Vonnegut any day... So it goes.
Oh I also decided that I will relocate to Vancouver in the near future. More on that to come...
