I-70

Car problems: somewhere in New York state my car developed a couple charming little issues. The first issue happened only once, yet is still irritating me. It wouldn’t start. It would turn over and over and just wouldn’t catch. After 30 minutes of cursing and trying, it finally (and very reluctantly) caught. A few more minutes and the battery would have been dead and I would have been calling a tow truck (and cursing some more).
The other issue struck just after I crossed over into Pennsylvania. The car tried to overheat. Just as I pulled over the temperature dropped back down so I pulled back on the highway. The temp continued to fluctuate till I worked out that the faster I went, the lower it dropped. Between 75 and 80 seemed to do the trick. This was all well and good until I got into some twisty roads and it started snowing. Also it was night. So there I was, doing 80 down a curvy unknown road in driving snow thinking how smart I was to figure out how to keep the car from overheating. The snow lasted about 60 miles and I came out it of never so happy to see dry roads. About an hour later I realized it wasn’t the speed that mattered, it was the rpm’s. I could drop it into 4th and run at 65, or 3rd and 50, and the temp would stay low. It's a good thing I are so dang smart.

The next day it ran fine, and the day after that I had to stop a few times to let the car cool off. Then it ran fine again. Then it wouldn't start. Now it's fine.

My car is weird.

I might have to trade it in soon and finish the trip in something else. Oh well, such is life.

NYC

New York for at least 2 years. That’s how I answer the “where would you live if you won the lottery?” question. As a non-lottery winner I don’t think I have the energy to work the hours it would take for me to pay the rent there. The whole city is amazing, though.

I saw the Guggenheim (disappointing), the MoMA (spectacular, perhaps the best art museum I’ve ever seen) and the Whitney (if you like Edward Hopper (and I do) this is a must-see). Of the three, the MoMA was the only one that allowed photography and after spending a few hours there I wish they didn’t. I watched hordes of middle-aged white guys rushing from masterpiece to masterpiece trying to calm their Starbucks twitch long enough snap a pic with their camera-phones with scant interest in actually experiencing the beauty and genius of great art.

“Hey Bill, you still got that ‘Starry Night’ on your phone?”

“Hell yeah, check out this shit.”

Other than that I walked around and people watched a lot.

Concord, MA

Well, much has happened. I made my way down to Concord, MA to visit MC for a few days and found myself getting a little too comfortable.

I spent a night at an upscale club in Boston drinking 25 year old single malt and being repeatedly amazed at how inept some guys are at talking to women.

I spent a rainy yet beautiful afternoon seeing where the “shot heard round the world” took place. This was the first time colonists fired upon British soldiers. There’s a little patch of earth fenced off that’s actually British land, it’s the spot where a British soldier died a long long time ago.

I spent a day a night and a day on a 32 foot sailboat in Buzzards Bay near Cape Cod. Afterwards I ate pot roast and potatoes and carrots and had a baked apple for dessert.

Then I went to Boston and hopped a bus from Chinatown to Chinatown in NY.