Swimming back towards Europe

I turned the corner on the trip yesterday, starting back towards Europe on a two-day hop through Orlando. It’s been a good trip, wonderful to have been able to attend the Dad’s weekend, productive in getting through the “while in the US: to-do list and catching up with people.

I did manage to get a ticket blazing back across Washington State late last night.  I missed the turnoff for County Road 26, north to the interstate, and found myself on 26-west, winding through the dry, dark hills at 45 mph.  When the road opened onto the inner basin, an oval desert at the heart of eastern Washington, the road straightened and the speed limit went up to 65.  It was long, flat, straight, empty, dark….well, I got clocked at 14 over the limit.  To my credit, I was wearing a seatbelt and wasn’t chatting on a cell phone.  It was a $144 hit to the Ritzville Justice center, though (and some good fun with the Wa State Patrol trying to explain my Dutch drivers license).

‘Long flight to Orlando on Sunday for the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, arriving at 10 pm, first meetings at 7:30 am in true American business style.  I can do this heroism for a day, but it almost insures that I’ll be sleeping the whole way back…

…through Atlanta, London, Amsterdam, the train…  It’s almost as hard as the homeward journey of Seattle’s wild salmon.