I write this from a room in my Dad's house in misty, gray Williamsburg. I decided with the late start to crash in D.C. yesterday with my brother, which means I got to see him and a surprisingly snazzily-dressed Anthony one more time. I left this morning and am at last back to being on schedule...sort of. I made two executive decisions: 1) to allow the Forester to breathe a bit, to give me some visibility out the rear window, and to allow foot room in the seatwell for my eventual reunion with Alexis in seattle as well as space for her bags, I mailed some packages from the Williamsburg PO to Laura in SF. And let me tell all of you this if you're not aware of it: there's an option called Media Mail with which you can ship books, videos, cds, etc. at RIDICULOUSLY low rates. One BIG box of books was going to ship for $90 priority/$30 parcel post, and instead shipped for a mere $16. Now that's a bargain. 2) I'm stopping in Lexington instead of Louisville. It cuts my drive down from 9 hours to 8, but the drive to St. Louis after that was going to be at most, 5, and now will be 6. Found a cheap hotel in Lexington, too. Tip from my dad: always CALL in advance for reservations. Even if you find the hotel in the middle of the night off a random road, call from the pay phones or your cell phone. They always quote & book cheaper if you call "in advance." Being a AAA member helps too. Hey Mom -- Dad had recent trip tix and maps from them here, after all. So I now have all the skinny on most of the areas I'm driving through.

The hotel I made a reservation for supposedly has "dataports," so I hope to email more tomorrow, if there's any news. Until then...