Day 1 of the snowy trip

I'm leaving this morning for my trip across the country, or at least to the Mississippi, to research my book. It's a cool morning in San Francisco, mostly cloudy, a weak sun appearing from time to time. My friend Jeanne should be calling me soon to take me to get my rental car.

I packed last night in an enormous duffle bag that is at least four feet long. We ordered it thinking it would be more like an overnight bag but neglected to look at the dimensions. When it arrived we made a lot of jokes about how you could carry around a small person in there, but in the end we decided to keep it, since most of our luggage is extremely crappy. This is its first trip.

I dreamed I was at Holden Village, where they had decided they were going to embark on a major initiative taking care of orphaned babies. Everyone got one. Mine was named Alexy, and the main thing was to keep carrying it around, feed it, and keep it warm. (Changing the baby was not part of the dream.) I put Alexy down under a chair once to get some more food, and the cat came up and curiously sniffed it.

Weather along the way looks perfect for the first day. I'm going to see how far I can get on the way to Salt Lake City, but I might go only as far as Elko or Wendover. I'm tempted to drop down instead and go on Hwy. 50 through Nevada, since I've always wanted to do that, but I don't think I'll really have time.

I'm still getting over a cold, but my coughing is more productive, as they say, which tells me things are breaking up.