Somewhere south of Syracuse

[Note: this entry was written on Sep. 28 but couldn’t be posted until today (Sep. 30). I have backdated the entry to keep the time flow linear]

I arrived tonight in Syracuse, NY. The faculty member hosting me for this seminar went beyond the call of duty and graciously invited me to stay at his house outside the city. This is a beautiful area. Beyond the neighborhood extends a thicket of woods and fields while here it is old farm land, now a series of streets and homes.

My trip to Syracuse was fraught largely with success; one minor screw-up put me about 15 miles up I-87N before I realized I was supposed to be on I-90W. I nearly wound up heading halfway to Montreal a few days early! The turning around was easy, and in no time I was back on the right track.

The  weather was quite a mix on the way. As I headed north out of Connecticut and into Massachusetts, the cloudy sky briefly became a patchwork of clouds and islands of blue. Sunlight even warmed the inside of the car. As I turned west and crossed the border into New York, I hit a roaring downpour that slowed traffic to far below the speed limit and made even bright red tail lights hard to see. Between the wiper blades’ descent and ascent, there was blindness.

The drive was extremely pleasant, scored by a motley crew of audio played from my pocket PC. Diggnation [1], FLOSS [2], and Science Friday [3] merrily chatted as I drove.  Even with my little screw up on I-87N, the time flew by and before I knew it I was looking for my exit into Syracuse. Driving from place to place is so much more pleasant and engaging than sitting crammed into a crummy cut-rate airline, wishing the price of water were lower. I’ll take $4.70/gallon gas ANY DAY over the ill-conceived cattle car of a coach-class airplane ride.

My host took me to a great little pub near his house, which has “better food than a pub ought to” (which I agree with, in this case). I am very much looking forward to my time here, brief though it is.

[1] http://www.revision3.com/diggnation
[2] http://twit.tv/floss
[3] http://www.sciencefriday.com