the imbroglio

After a marathon 24-hour sprint from Chicago, we have reached Montana! (“We” meaning me and my dog; we left L. in Chicago w/her family for a couple of weeks.) After leaving Chicago and making our way through Wisconsin during the day, we drove across North Dakota in the middle of the night with “Disintegration” drowning out the roar of the engine and the whine of the road. Sure, I had the iPod loaded w/all kinds of goodies, but for some reason “The Cure” seemed like the best thing to listen to at the time.¹ I was reminded of the first time I saw The Cure, which was on the “Disintegration” tour (the summer after that album came out) at Fiddler’s Green in Denver.² I don’t know what kind of show they’d put on now, but back in the ’90s The Cure did a great show—the bass would just vibrate your whole body and they would often go off on jamming riffs that would last for 10-15 minutes at a time. I always found it an almost meditative experience, sort of like a waking dream….

But speaking of waking dreams, here are a few notes on driving all night:

1. Driving all night is a little like Driving On 9, but there were no shotguns involved.
2. Driving a fully-loaded 16′ truck w/trailer deep into Chicago is an adventure I’ll try not to repeat. Not horrible, but I wouldn’t call it fun, either.³
3. Wisconsin is a beautiful state. I’ll bet I would really enjoy living there.
4. Attempting to find sleeping room for one adult human and one adult dog in the cab of a moving truck is not recommended.
5. North Dakota along I-94 is darned flat and empty.
6. If you look in your rearview mirror and see sparks flying from the tire area of your trailer, stopping immediately would be a great idea.
7. Mandan, ND, is a pretty little town just outside of Bismarck. I recommend it if you find you’ve shredded a trailer tire at 4 a.m. in the middle of NoDak. Of course, you’ll have to wait until the tire store opens at 8 a.m., but as soon as they open, they’ll have you on your way w/service and a smile.
8. Theodore Roosevelt National Park makes an excellent rest stop on the western edge of NoDak. The guides at the interpretive center will even let you borrow their binoculars so you can see the bison.
9. Sleep in a real bed after a 24-hour drive is a sweet, sweet thing.

So all’s well that ends well. But all this driving is pretty isolating. How is your weekend going? What’s going on in the rest of the world? [tags]moving, driving, ND, WI[/tags]

1. I tried listening to some bar review lectures but that didn’t last long because the lectures: a) reminded me of how much work I have to do to prepare for the bar, and b) put me directly to sleep, which is not a good thing while driving.↩
2. Apparently the place is now called Coors Amphitheatre, which I’m sure you’ll agree is a much better name. Not.↩
3. Apologies to you Chicago area readers I didn’t get to contact or see. We were only passing through this time, but I know I’ll be making it back there again sooner than later and I hope we can get together then.↩