"Groundhog town" & Canada coming up fast

[As a test of this Blogger.com-embedded Jigglebox page and its ability to take text from an email and turn it into a blog entry, I send this, the meat of a recent email sent to a friend, fleshed out and polished up for YOU, beloved Reader. Cross yer fingers now. I thumb-wrote this on a phone and am sending it from a phone in a canoe-laden minivan shooting up some interstate in rural Minnesota at 70 mph. The technological ramifications baffle me.]

After the Doyle and a fine food & booze opulent week in York, PA with (and courtesy of) Editor Pam, I romped on Washington, D.C. and tore up four great daze with amigo & gracious host Miguel in which I visited seven Smithsonian museums and every monument and war memorial on The Mall. On Saturday with Mike off work, we went sailing on Chesapeake Bay and later gorged on delicious blue crab in a crowded restaurant/seafood-slaughterhouse in a bizzare ritual involving tiny wooden mallets and what appeared (to my tropical cocktail-adled mind) a truly savage slaughter, a kind of agregious attack on the food, a venting of madness just one human hair's width shy of cannibalism. Mighta just been my warped perception.

Following five nights in D.C., I flew to Chicago and yesterday went right from plane to work (plus 2 hour drive from airport) shopping, other errands, gear introductions by a very excited partner Frank. The gear really is amazing, all top shelf (eg: PFDs w/CO2 canisters that inflate like airbags with the pull of a ripcord). I won't drown. The Kevlar canoe is 18.5" long yet weighs just 35 lbs.

You'll laugh when I tell you where I spent last night. Perfect kickoff for this new journey into unknown. Punxatawny, PA. Think Phil. That's right, "Groundhog Day." 'Cept it warn't filmed in PA but in Frank's town of Woodstock, IL. The entire small town was THE SET. They didn't change a thing. Town square w/gazebo, bowling alley w/train tracks next door, his B&B home, clock tower, the cafe, very cool. Got a photo of my feet at a bronze plaque where Bill Murray incessently stepped in his nemesis pothole.

Awoke today and was on the road at 6 a.m. for our 600 mile drive to Canada. I'm a zombie. Now a zombie w/sore thumbs from typing on this Blackberry. But in under 24 hrs, I'll be on water. THE water. Hoo-Rah! - RSM

[End note: It might be a week before my next posting as this method won't fly while I'm canoeing. Stay tuned for the BIG postings that will come via Sony memory stix, Priority Mail and the aide of Sister Margarita! Until then, I'll do short ones like this from the river when I am able.]
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device