This is gonna be highlights and observations -- no real specifics and no real timeline. Just so you know, I left the Arctic Air front of Chicago on Friday, January 17 boarding a cheap flight to Rhode Island where friendly Christian from Boston picked me up and we drove through the night to land bleary-eyed into the lovely arms of Jennifer in Philadelphia. There we crashed and watched a matinee of at the Wilma Theater and I got to see the new space. Though it looked like a poured concrete blob from the outside, I was rather impressed with the inside -- I was also impressed by the fact that they did successfully manage to keep the intimacy of the theater while tripling it's audience capacity. Sunday -- drove to Washington, DC, no real directions to the bus station from Miss Beth Popp, and I was unsuccessful in locating a person who could tell me where it was in English. Finally, we picked Miss Popp up and headed for our first attraction -- The Museum of Menstruation in Hyattsville, MD (about 15 minutes from downtown DC, but you woud never really know that if you were driving with us). The MUseum of Menstruation (MUM) is run out of Harry Finley's basement in his house. He charges no admission, but let me tell you, it was well worth all the money I paid for the t-shirt (which says "MUM's the word in Washington, DC... period."). We had to make an appointment ahead of time to see Harry, because he's just a working Joe like us. We actually spent quite a long time with him -- from about 1:30 to 4:30. Harry is probably about 45-years old, 5'6", and has the biggest head that I've ever seen on a live human being. He also has deep-set eyes, so it probably made his brain look that much bigger. There was also a lovely, pulsing blue vein that zagged up his left temple. Harry had a BA in Philosophy from Johns Hopkins (many a year ago), studied for his Master's in German -- in Germany -- where he got interested in the cultural differences in advertising women's hygiene products. Now, his day job is doing/teaching computer graphics at the Department of Defense. There were lots of advertising artifacts up in his museum as well as hundreds of different kinds of menstrual products -- yes, Rachel, I got to touch "the Keeper" -- my favorite was "PMS Crunch" which Harry let Beth, Christian, and me eat a handful of -- yum yum. Harry was great. He had a WHOPPING laugh -- I think that I do a rather good impression of it. Christian thinks that he does it to get the babes. I think he's wrong. I think that that might be a bonus, but mostly he does it because it interests him that much. Here was a man who was passionate about something and he was actually going through with it. There's some sort of dedication there that I wish I had. From MUM, we motored out onto I-95 and commenced the long boring drive southward. oy. 'Twas a dull stretch of land with only our fond memories of Harry and his museum to keep us company... But lo! behold! What is that on the horizon? *Another* South of the Border billboard? I don't remember the exact number, but we made Beth write them all down (except for that stretch of time were there were 7,000 in a row). Shining like a beacon on the horizon was the big ol' Sombrero in the Sky -- just south of the NC state line on I-95. 'Twas 12:30am and we weren't feeling any warmer, but we took a little tour of the eight block mecca -- the casino was right there where Rachel and Stephanie told us it would be. (Un)fortunately, everything but the diner was closed. But we drove around the parking lot to look at the plastic animals. Neon lights and flashing colors blinded us and we felt a need to leave as soon as possible. Driving, driving, driving, we made it to Key West -- the southernmost key in Florida -- on Monday afternoon. Ernest Hemingway had made the Key his home for about 12 years and his house is open for tours. The famous 6-toed cats that he had (I believe he had around 50 cats -- not all of the 6-toed) begat and begat -- there was a total of 56 cats on the premises. The thing that I found most interesting about this was that the house had ceased being functional as a house -- but was now a part of the literary/historical continuum. Likewise the cats -- in fact, the cats seemed to garner more attention than the house -- possibly because they were a living link to a legend -- living artifacts. Or possibly because they were cuddly and cute. MORE LATER...

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