The Trip

A quick word or two here about the road trip to Reno, which was easily the longest I've driven in a weekend in my life. Luckily I was accompanied by my buddy Graham, who has signed on to this quixotic quest. Started last Saturday, got here Monday night. The route: Toronto, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada. Stopped one night in Des Moines (the most boring city on earth? NO nightlife on Saturday, and I don't care what Kerouac said about Des Moines having the world's prettiest girls: he clearly wrote that 40 years ago) and Salt Lake City (beautiful, but scarily Mormon-cultish). No surprises: the midwest is flat flat flat, the Rockies are rocky (that John Denver wasn't full of shit after all), and gas truly is consistently over $2 a gallon all across this great land. Reno is "The Biggest Little City on Earth", full of brassy, classy and seedy casinos. Even now, after two days here, I haven't had the chance to play cards, but I will. Unbelievably, we're staying in a condo right across the California border in Lake Tahoe, a donation by some wealthy Dem for the course of the campaign. More unbelievably, northern Nevada is freezing. It snowed today, and it will snow the next couple of days; so much so that we couldn't get to the condo because we didn't have the requisite snow chains on the car. Forget about what you know from the movies about Nevada desert weather. Can't wait to get to Vegas, if only for that reason. Totals: 2490 miles/circa 4000km; 35+ hours driving; two nights; $230 US in gas. And hopefully 5 electoral votes for KE '04. But that analysis comes later.