Happy April! I don't have any pranks for you today, though I'm tempted to announce that I'll make my trip using BMW's new Magnetic Tow Technology, advertised today here. If this were real it would be a sweet way to ride.
And speaking of riding, I need to figure out soon whether I'm going to go by car or train. I was leaning towards going by train, but then it occurred to me that because I'd be riding in short hops, each leg would be no more than a day trip. I'd still be overnighting more or less entirely at hotels, so the train fare doesn't replace a hotel stay. No money saved on food, either, because the dining car charges unless you've made an exorbitantly upgraded reservation, which is only worth doing on long rides. I don't have to make car payments, but I do have to pay for rentals if I want to get anywhere within the cities I visit. The train looked appealing when I thought it was going to be more convenient and less expensive; I'm not sure how I feel now that it looks more convenient and more expensive.
The two biggest advantages of trains remain what they were: not having to focus on moving for long stretches at a time, and having a ready-made place to look for interviewees where we're all on equal terms. These should not be essential but are really tempting. I'm unfortunately aware that the higher the bar I set for myself, the greater the probability that I'm going to lose my nerve and abandon the whole project, consigning myself to spending June through August tutoring the odd few students who want tutoring during the summer, like I did last year and the year before that. I'd rather not do that again. But what price am I willing to pay, in dollars and romance, to lower the bar?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment