Driving To Wisconsin

It took us all day today just to go through most of Montana, NOT all of it. Tonight we are staying in Miles City MT. They first day after we left Corvallis we drove to Missoula, MT then today we drove another 500 miles to Miles City, MT. Here is the view outside our hotel window.

But here are some other pictures from the move. The movers came on Tuesday afternoon to inventory our house then started loading the truck (the truck was really pretty) on Wednesday morning. They were fast! By 2:30 they were loaded and gone. We stayed the night in the empty house and cleaned up. By 8 the next morning we were on the road too. We had our walky - talkies with us so we had a real convoy. Her is one more picture from our trip. It was a butte that looked cool at the time. I tried to take a picture of Cely and Alexis in the car behind me but it didn't work out right. I almost lost the camera in the wind. Tomorrow I have a new plan, using the strap.
Tomorrow we finish off Montana, drive throw North Dakota and get into Minnesota. The weather has been particularly hot but speeding across Montana at a legal 75 has been fun.

The Turkey Buzzard

Last night Cely and I saw the strangest thing, a turkey vulture walking along the road by Hoover School. I didn't have the camera but here is a picture of one from a photo sharing site, Stock.XCHNG.
It was still there and eating squirrel road kill when we came back from our errands. Before this I had only seen them out in the country and high in the air.

Today I got some pictures from Adrienne's friend Xavier. He took these when he visited Chicago in the winter and last month when he visited before Cely and I went to ALA. The first is in Millennium Park in Chicago and the other is at a lake near Hoodoo Ski area off of Rt. 20 heading towards Sisters, Oregon.

The Palamino

The Palamino, at the corner of Superior and East Russell is just what you would expect from a neighborhood tavern in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; hardwood bar with regulars perched on cabin-rustic stools, cigarette machine in back by the pool table, and an eight point buck mounted on a knotty pine wall. But as you look around at the tattooed arms of your waitress and the bartender’s spiked hair and dangling earrings that purposely don’t match, there’s something else that doesn’t match your first impression. Hipsters have taken over the corner bar. The beer list features microbrews from around the world, but you can still get Blatz in a bottle and Old Style in a can for a buck fifty. On the flat-screen wall television they were playing a modern Godzilla movie. But the best part was that half the menu was dedicated to vegetarian fare. They served Southern fried tofu, tempeh lettuce and tomato sandwiches along with hushpuppies and mountains of thin-sliced onion rings. We finished it all off with fresh homemade blueberry pie. I can’t wait to go back again.

Dinner at ALA

One more thing about ALA. One of the fun things about it is that you get to see friends in the business. This one was especially good because I was able to meet up with Daniel Mattes who I only get to see at ALA. Last year in New Orleans Steve Ostrem and I had dinner with him and now we all, along with Cely and some others met up again. This time for Thai food. Daniel is the library director at the Universidad Anáhuac in Mexico City. We met up with some other friends from Iowa, Maine and Florida. I guess we covered North America pretty well. Have to make friends with someone from Canada. That's (clockwise from bottom left, Jonathan Miller, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida; Jim Elmborg, Director ot the University of Iowa Library School; me; Cely; Steve, University of Iowa Libraries; Daniel; Jim's wife Ann; and Sue O'Dell from Bowdoin College. By the way, Sue's husband, Tim has a second CD out, Ancient Pines , its very good. Tim plays saxophone and does so very well.

Back in Corvallis

Making it back to Corvallis was pretty easy once we lit on a new plan. We made it to the Quad Cities Friday night just fine then I went out Saturday morning. Cely decided to stay since I was coming back on Wednesday for Anitra Cross's wedding on July 7. I flew from Moline to Denver then made a connection there to Portland. It was better that I went by myself because Denver was pretty busy also. I was on the left side of the plane so was able to get a great view of Mt. Hood as we descended to Portland.

Today I am spending the day packing books.