4 April ~ as the clock ticks down.

Charles here (and any day now, Sean and Christo will begin writing). It's the lull before the storm. The house is mostly packed up in boxes now. I'm teaching my last 2.5 weeks of classes at the university and grading papers (while getting over a slow-moving bronchitis). Christo defends his honors thesis tomorrow. Our packs are packed and sitting downstairs waiting to be put in the duffel bags for the airport.

Have been re-reading some favorite Edward Said quotations. Here's one for the Trail:

“The image of the traveler depends not on power but on motion, on a willingness to go into different worlds, use different idioms, and understand a variety of disguises, masks, and rhetorics. Travelers must suspend the claim of customary routine in order to live in new rhythms and rituals. Most of all, and most unlike the potentate who must guard only one place and defend its frontiers, the traveler crosses over, traverses territory, and abandons fixed positions all of the time.” 

"Identity, Authority, and Freedom: the Potentate and the Traveler." Transition 54 (1991). 

Charles, Christo, and Sean heading up into the Kenosha Range on the Colorado Trail (Aug 2011).