7/4/2007

Happy Independence Day everyone! Always a good spirit around this holiday, considering it couldn’t have been too far in the past that I would be gearing up to grab a good spot on the Merrimack River to catch the booming fireworks coming over from the Haverhill bank of the river. This year we get to celebrate from the Lake Wolcott State Park in Idaho. Judging by many of the closed stores around here, I am expecting some type of large celebration from the surrounding towns. We did have a minor setback on the way here, as Idaho is not great at putting up signs which help drivers from out of state, like directions to follow major routes across the state, instead choosing to put up yellow signs with a picture of truck with shocking regularity. Oh, that and speed limit signs seemingly every 20 yards. No signs to let you know how to follow the random turns that made up Route 30, though. Great work Idaho, keep it up, it will be reflected in Matt’s rate the state for Idaho, I’m sure.

Anyways, the fact that it is a holiday does not however mean that it is to be a day off from biking. After a short day of biking yesterday, there is some mileage to be put in for today. Matt decided to join Dad for what he could of today’s ride, leaving me to my own devices once again. I should be using this time to update the website, maybe try to figure out how to post pictures, but until I get my hands on the means to transfer pictures from Dad’s laptop to Matt’s, I am out of luck. So currently I am taking in the map of Idaho, looking at towns like Eden, Bliss and Magic City, and wondering what type of egomaniac lived out in Idaho, deciding to go around making up these town names in an effort to make this state look much more interesting than all the crop fields it in reality is made up of.

Other than that, in my free time I’ve used the free time to finish my fifth book of the trip, another Leon Uris novel, this time Trinity (for the second time). Great book by a great author, I would recommend it enthusiastically to anyone who wants to read some historical part-fiction based upon the happenings from around pre-Famine to Pre-Easter 1916 in Ireland. Confusing I know, but it really is a good read, and he is a much better author than I, and as such, you can expect a much clearer phrasing of words in his works. Now it’s on to the book set up to somewhat follow it, Redemption, the follow up from what I’ve heard to Trinity, and my third Uris book of the trip. I think I may be starting to get hooked on a new author, as it’s been almost a year since I got off of my Vonnegut binge. The luxury of free time has been a great part of this trip, even if I seem anti-social to my father while absorbed into the worlds these books provide, but that has always been my way when I find a good book, so I really have no apologies for such actions.

If you picked up on a bit of tension in that last sentence, you are probably about right. After all, with three strong Roche personalities together for a month at this point, and on a quick side note, I can’t believe it’s already been a month, we are bound to grate on each other a bit. I am however proud to announce that after a month we are still (mostly) enjoying each others company, having worked out most of the rough details of what is required to make this trip progress from a day to day basis. And now that Dad has brought his iPod into the car rotation, even music is becoming less of a hassle for everyone, as we can finally listen to his beloved Barenaked Ladies. Anyways the trip is going well here, a fair is down the road, and who knows, maybe we can find a store to get a few beverages to enjoy on this great All-American country. Hope your holidays find you in good health as well. Hopefully all of you can enjoy them as much as Mandi Rudy, whose call at 1030 eastern time gave me a good clue as to how the people back east are enjoying the holiday, haha. It was great to hear from those back home, feel free anyone to give me a call, as my free time tends to be when those back east work, and I get caught up with activities that happen after the day’s work is done out here. The time difference, while having no problem adjusting physically, has been a tough thing to get my head around when attempting to contact people back east. Anyways, I’m rambling on some random stuff, so I will cut myself off and get back to putting my head into another book, so I hope all is well in your neck of the woods, that’s all from me for now.