I’ve got a work meeting in Minnesota next week.  My area typically does one of these meetings once per year, and mid to late September seems to have become the norm.  However, instead of flying I’m driving it this time.  It will cost me an extra day each way, but it has the advantage of not having to deal with the hassles of the TSA, lost luggage, flight delays, rude people, and canceled connection flights (the year before last I got to spend a night in Chicago O’Hare thanks to a late arrival combined with the cancellation of the American Eagle connecting flight).  The flying experience has been deteriorating over the years, but it wasn’t the bad service or increasing fees that finally pushed me over the edge; instead it was TSA’s installation of body scanners that did it for me.  It’s a strip search, just without bothering to remove your clothes.  I find it offensive and I will not use it.  And unless I have to fly overseas, I will be driving as long as those machines are in place.  Further, I won’t be flying overseas unless I have to do so for work.  I certainly won’t be taking any personal trips.

Anyhow, rather than leaving and returning directly from Keller, though, I will be basing the main body of the trip from my mother’s place in East Texas.  She has agreed to keep the dogs for me while I’m gone, which will save me a substantial amount of money in kennel fees (it would have been over $500 to kennel both of them for the entire time).  So today I will head for East Texas and I will begin the main part of the trip tomorrow, driving up through Oklahoma, Missouri, and Iowa on the way to Minnesota.  It’s about 920 miles so I will spread it over two days and spend Saturday night just north of Kansas City. 

I should be back late on Sunday the 28th, so if I don’t post again before then you’ll know why.