After a late start from Des Moines (totally worth it given the pictures we took; see below), we clawed our way past Chicago and turned in at a Best Western here in New Buffalo, Michigan — literally, the first off-ramp on the highway that was in the Eastern time zone (mileage number 1). I figure we’ve added an hour on the Kitchener-to-Kalamazoo trip we took back on the 22nd, but with a mid-morning start, we should be home and dry by the evening, with enough time to get Vivian settled down and in her own bed, and possibly to ring in 2008 with a little champagne.
We left Des Moines late because Erin and Rosemarie went out to spend a little quality time with each other, and then we needed to have a proper good-bye with Vivian present. More importantly, the place where we were to meet had a carousel. Here are the pictures.
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She loved it. Of course!
In Other News…
Did you think you need some artificial goal placed in front of you before you can finish your novel? Is November a too inconvenient time, or does the pace of the NaNoWriMo (write a 50,000 novel in 30 days) seem too intense? Well, why not try to write a novel in 90 days? This group is resetting come January 1st, so now is your chance to get that book done at a more leisurely pace of 750 words for 90 days.
If anybody asks, I won’t be going for this. It does sound a lot of fun, and this sort of intensive creativity (write a novel in November, write a play in 72 hours) is something that I want to do at some point in my life, if only to say that I’ve done it. But not now. Not with Vivian in tow, and not with The Dream King’s Daughter holding steady at a slow but stable 5000 words per month (167 words per day). (Hat tip to Writing and Rambling).