Okay, okay – yeah, the roadtrip blog’s been pretty damned quiet lately. Sorry, no roadtrips. A wise writer friend of mine once warned me that “Blogs are a  of lot like babies – if you don’t feed ‘em for a couple of weeks, there’s no point going back.” Okay, wise but twisted; sorry I shouldn’t have sprung that on you without warning.

But hey: roadtrip! Miranda and I are on the second outbound leg of our inaugural Tour of Midwest Colleges that are Still Freakishly Cold. Being freakishly cold was not one of the actual selection criteria, but somehow it seems to be highly correlated with small liberal arts schools that have a solid physical sciences program. Maybe it’s all that time inside huddled close to the fire with nothing to do but read? Clearly these institutions established their reputations before the rise of Facebook.

Anyhow, first stop is Cleveland, which gives us access to Oberlin and Kenyon, then Tuesday will find us in Grinnell. Thursday takes us north to St. Paul for UMinnesota and Macalester. And despite poking holes in the space time continuum, we’re going to just have to try and make it out to Lawrence next time around.

Captain just reported the weather at our destination and felt compelled to note the number as 35 degrees “above zero”. Point taken. But I think this is going to be fun; it’s been ages since Miranda and I traveled with each other, certainly not since she got all grownup and adult-like. And besides, I’ve got a thing for small liberal arts colleges. Especially the freakishly cold ones.