Road Trip Interlude: Life in the Car

And how was it, that twenty-day stretch of travelling? 5,496 miles is a long time in a car; how does one pass the time? Fortunately, Emily did most of the driving. Also fortunately, as a passenger she's great with a camera:


Oh, here is a visual image of all of those 5,496 miles, by the way:


One key diversion was the BBC podcast series
A History of the World in 100 Objects.

Fascinating stories about early human history (we only made it to like object 16... but still planning on listening to the rest soon!), and a thoroughly impressive job of weaving larger and often contemporary themes into discussions of insanely old bits of rock and clay.

I mean, one of the first stretches of writing concerned beer rations: need I say more? :)

We were on the road, of course, so haven't had the chance to enjoy all the fancy web extras, but I hear you can see all the objects online: take a look.

Of course, sooner or later people get tired of sitting in a car all day:

Poor guy.

Nothing could possibly make me happier, however, than to report that in seriously 9 out of 10 cases, reading a book would stop the tears and put a smile on Franklin's face.

Among the many books we read many, many times, our favorites, in no particular order:

¡Fiesta!, by Ginger Foglesong Guy, pictures by René King Moreno:

This might be Franklin's overall favorite. My only worry is that my poor Spanish pronunciation will create problems down the line... ;)

It's pleasant cadences and charming pictures guaranteed that the book we heard the most was Big Red Barn, by Margaret Wise Brown, pictures by Felicia Bond:

And a new hit and keepsake was the copy of Cowboy Small, by Lois Lenski, that we picked up at the Badlands National Park gift shop. Among its many charms is the point when Cowboy Small sings Home on the Range:

A chance for me to belt out a few notes... and, as a bonus, it's the state song of Kansas!

Otherwise, we did out best to enjoy the beautiful scenery, both outside:


And in: