Weekend report:

I finally made it to West Virginia—K and I went to Harper’s Ferry today. We took her family’s truck, and she has a GPS that her mum called Molly. As we were starting to head back I realised I was living the dream: I was finally truckin’ with Molly in America. Now, if only I could do that for a few months without feeling constantly guilty about the environmental impact, then I could write the books I’ve always wanted to write…

So, Harper’s Ferry. It started pouring with rain about 20 miles out, so it wasn’t the best day for a trip, but it was still pretty. We both took a good number of photographs—mine were with my old school Pentax, so it’ll be some time till I see them. I don’t expect great things as the light wasn’t very good, but… it was nice to have the camera out. We wandered across the bridge by the railway and climbed over a few things to get to an abandoned building. Always fun. Oh, and we were most impressed by the number of churches for such a small population.

K also gave me a cultural experience on the way there: my first stop at a Waffle House. It was very classy. We stopped in Urbana, and I took a few photos first (the roadside diner thing fascinates me) and when we were in the staff immediately asked me where I was from. They don’t see many Australians in Urbana, so they fussed over us, and, for some reason, gave us paper Waffle House hats, which of course K and I wore through our meal. K also scored a Waffle House mug to take back to her dad.

Beyond that, I got a feel for how much I’ll treasure weekends for the next few weeks, while my fulltime teaching continues. I’ve still got some student work to comment on today, and hopefully I’ll get through some tomorrow afternoon as well.