Home

It is difficult to appreciate the familiar and comfortable routine of being home until you have been away on the road for weeks at a time.  I've missed my bed, toilet, shower, and couch, even though I never even thought about them while I was gone.  I've driven 4,000 miles in three weeks:  Montana, southern Utah, Seattle, the Olympic Peninsula, the Oregon coast, northern California, and the width of Nevada.

I think I'm going to stop strapping my bicycle on the back of the car for these work trips.  My bike went over 4000 miles, but I only rode one time.  I may start running again.  I said that a long time ago.  Dave Parker and I were sitting at the kitchen table of our tiny apartment after a long ride, talking about the expense of maintaining and riding bicycles.  "Why not run," he said.  "All you need is a good pair of shoes.  No more bike parts, tubes, tires, shorts, pedals, shoes, jerseys, jackets, gloves, or helmets."  That was 1990.  I still haven't started running again.  I probably never will.

We are headed for Montana in a few weeks.  We will be up there for at least two or three weeks doing extended field work measuring landscape variables at the wildlife crossing structures.  I'll have my bicycle on the back of the car.