The end of conferencing.

Tonight, after we ate our fine supper, we were hanging out in front of our fancy farm-to-table restaurant, waiting for a cab back from St. Paul to Minneapolis, over the river and through the woods and what not, and I thought, enough.

Enough big ideas for one several day period. Enough milling around with the thousands. Enough girding one's innards for the gauntlet of the book fair. Enough broadsides and enough literary magazines.

I'm not complaining, I'm just saying: let's call it a day, a week, a year. Let's take our spoils home and sit with them for a while. Let's find the things worth keeping and let the rest sift away.

But it has been fun:

Walker Art Center in fine form.

> and a poem. <

The end. (of the road trip.)

This morning, we shot out of bed at 7, and were out the door of the desert house by 8. Well, by 8:20.

The night before, we had done the "how long will it take us to drive back?" calculus, amplified by two amplification factors: (1) the "it always takes longer on the way back" multiplier, and (2) the Pacific-to-Mountain time drag.

Even with these long-assifying factors, we made it back by 8:42 p.m. To our door, where we were greeted by our happy, happy dog and the young man who had kept him company.

Here are important factors about the day's trip:

1. we figured out what that giant light was, just outside of Searchlight.
2. we reminded ourselves why the iPod Classic is classic. Was, I guess. Always will be.
3. we had items we had brought from our desert house stash to restore us: San Pellegrino Melograno Arancias; cookies of the Chessmen variety; crackers, all sorts; oranges, navel. Also! at a grand--seriously, so huge!--AM/PM store outside of Vegas, I got (bought) us two cups with pebble ice. Score/deluxe!
4. the Virgin River Gorge is 90% less thrilling when it is restricted to one northbound lane. Also, and related: 98% more frustrating.
5. The closer to home you get, the more likely you are to be thinking of a (a) to do list; (b) stuff you should have been doing whilst on vacation but (c) did not do. Related: stress rises at a rate inversely proportional to the shortening distance of your journey home. (that's a thing, right?)

Well, we're home. I have put away stuff and done a load of laundry. My workout clothes are packed for tomorrow, and I have sent messages to my students (in lieu of actually having graded their work, but you know. It's something.) It's considerably chillier here than it was in the desert, but tonight while we took Bruiser for a frisky walk, he enjoyed it and so did we. See you tomorrow at work, if I happen to work with you.