The hot weather has arrived here on Moonshine Mountain, so I’m fixin’ to take my summer sabbatical in New England. As a change of pace, I’m making an epic road trip out of it this year. Those who have followed my traveling exploits know that I was the inspiration for the Tom Hanks character in The Terminal, so rather than spend two days trapped in airports I figure I’ll spend ‘em cooped up in my car instead. As you know, I’ve already taken care of the important things, like a CD player and air conditioning. Also have a fresh oil change and got the vehicle inspected this morning (I didn’t actually pass, mind you, but all I need is a couple new tires, which I sort of suspected anyway, so I’ll get that taken care of forthwith), so I’m about ready to roll. My co-pilot Maury is so far unaware of this plan, but he does love to ride in the car. I don’t know if he loves it quite this much, but we shall see.

My plan is depart dark and early next Thursday morning. Fiddling around with Mapquest, it looks like Louisville, Kentucky is slightly more than halfway to my destination, so my plan is to get there the first night. That’ll be about a 15-hour driving day, so if anyone has any books-on-CD they’d like to recommend, feel free. Then the next day, it’ll be another 12-13 hours to North Adams, MA, my first port of call. A couple days there, then it’s up to Maine, where I’ll teach Maury to waterski.