h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi

Guess what? As the subject line says - I am touring Canada and the US in the summer, with GTBacchus in a White Ford Van. This is something of a rolling h2g2 meet, we are starting in Texas, going up the East Coast, across Canada, and down the West Coast in July and August, getting back to Texas early in September, catching up with as many h2g2 researchers as we can manage on the way.

Can we buy you lunch?

Pretty please?

B

Great! The lunch is on me!! Can't wait- when do you think you might get here?

You have to tell me what you want to eat- Asian, First Nations, Persian, East Indian, or Cake and Sydney?

Do you have any idea how far that is? Or how high the Rockies are? Or how mind-numbingly boring the praries are? I hope you keep in touch during your trek- you should set up a thread or something so we can keep track. Fantastic! The trip of a lifetime! I'll borrow the digicamera from work for snaps. And pass on anything you might like in the way of tips (I travel all over if you want the name of the best pub in Halifax or the best meal in Dallas.)

We will definitely get back to you on the detailed advice. I think GTB is going to put up a page with the details, whenever there are anything as definite as details that is.

How far? Well roadtrips are *meant* to be boring. That is one of the points of them, isn't it? I did 6000km in Australia last year, which whetted my appetite. England is an itty bitty bit of a place, but detailed.

It will be good to see you! I am going to get a map and stick little pins with labels on, and now we have one for the top right hand corner!

I'll keep you posted.

B

Left hand corner - left hand corner - left hand corner.

3,000 miles from Halifax to Vancouver, I'm willing to bet you will log well over 12,000 miles all told. Did you hear about the new gadget Wilbur and Orville Wright got going the other day?

*boiling raging hormonal jealousy*



Any room for me? I'm housetrained, and I don't eat much.

Perhaps you could rent a Ford Econoline with a big Gerbil wheel and Sat could be your engine!

Ok. I'm not that desperate that I'll resort to physical exercise to get to you...

Fine, then. I won't start walking east either.

As if you would anyway...

(BTW - If I disappear suddenly, I apologise. I've been having problems all evening )

Need the exercise, might do some lumberjacking on the way. Maybe a little Paul Bunyon and Blue action.

If you leave I will be devastated. *looks up suicide hotline*

Ah. I know that folk tale. Big cow/ox/buffalo thing. Moo.

I wouldn't be leaving. More like crashing in a technological mess, screaming "c**t!" loudly, and going to bed very upset... I won't go offline for a while (hopefully)...

Good, stay here, don't move I have to go the store below to get Cat Litter....seriously! Bloody thing reeks. bbs- in fact in 10.


*elevator music*

Oh yes. I know the joys. 5 cats. One litter tray.



*kicks around the thread for a while*

*5*???

Your joint must stink!

Two here, but closely monitored.

No. It doesn't. That was really rather rude of you to say so mister...

Mind you, one of your cats could equal two of mine (yes I remember you have big Maine Coon thingys)...

Too true, they are big boys!

Off to bed, sweetie. Kisses and cuddles and loves all around.

Big boys eh?

Dragging this thread back onto topic - we decided to do the roadtrip *because* it is a road-trip. It becomes interesting in itself.

And once you have set out to do part of it by vehicle, you have the problem of the vehicle itself. Unless you go around hiring cars and stuff, you can't just abandon it somewhere. Of course, it could always breakdown I guess, in which case abandonment might be the only option. Mind you, to be true to the spirit of the guide, we should hitch with little more than our copies of the guide and a towel apiece - but there would be even less guarantee of managing to get round in time.

Nah, I am happy with the idea of a roadtrip. That way we will know we have been to the places we go to, and we will have a sense of the sheer bloody scale of the place. I am unusually un-agoraphobic for a Brit - I grew up in one of the few places here where 220 degrees of the horizon is 30+ miles away, I *like* empty open spaces.

And as I said - boredom is part of the experience. I am always interested in what happens *after* I get bored. It is not always what I expect.

B