The Taste of Freedom

Leaving my job has been the best thing I could ever have done for myself. I would never have had the opportunity to travel as much over the summer (especially in June, when I would have been working really hard on grant review panels).

All the states we visited were interesting. Idaho was very pretty. Eastern Oregon is a lot different than western Oregon (or so Dan* tells me). Montana is very pretty. We spent the most time in Montana--it's a big state! North Dakota was not so great. Lots of RVs in North Dakota. In fact, we drove an extra seventy miles to avoid camping in RV Suburbia State Park. Minnesota was a relief (and, of course, has Bemidji, so it has to be great). We spent the night with friends in Wisconsin, and finished up in the UP of Michigan.

If it weren't for those winters, the UP might be paradise. It sure was great to just sit on the lake and do nothing. I'll be headed back there in July and again in August. I didn't even knit as much as I thought I would. I just sat. Well, we also canoed and cooked and hiked (in the rain--to keep the mosquitoes off) but mostly we just sat and enjoyed the hummingbirds and chirpy squirrels.

I did finish the secret project for Dan. I made him a pair of shorts using the Ibiza pattern from Loop-D-Loop. Not a fun pattern. It's stockinette, but the increasing for the front and back happen at different rates, so I had to pay careful attention and keep a tally going. I finished them in the woods and Dan put them on right away. He loves them, even though I can't remember the joke that made me want to knit them in the first place.

Next week I'm going to visit my sister in Kanab, Utah. After that I'm headed back to the UP. I also have to get back to my own research--I'm a part of a forum in October about using the internet in folklore research. I'd better have something to say.

I put all the pictures in a separate post so neither are too long.


*DG will be known as Dan from here on out (I know it may cause some confusion when I talk about my friend Dan who moved to New York, but I think I'll start calling him Dan who moved to New York--if he doesn't mind--when I talk about him. I owe him a hat, so I might be talking about him soon)