Bullet train

Another missed post means more bullet points!

- Indianapolis activity 1: puzzles at the Lilly Library! This library, which houses UI's rare manuscripts and such, had an exhibition on mechanical puzzles ranging from tangrams to Rubik's Cubes to twisted pieces of metal you had to figure out how to separate. I accidentally spent two hours there playing with the puzzles! Also there: a gigantic edition of Audubon's guide to birds. They turn the page every week. This week was grackles, which seemed appropriate for the blackbird theme of the trip.

- Indy activity 2: hiking in Brown County! The sign said "Ogle Lake," so I did.

- Indy activity 3: watching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya with Robert and Ruth! I'd never seen the show before, and now I've seen the first five or six episodes (in broadcast order, not chronological; this is important). Now I too can participate in the fan-wankery over this show! It is a lot of fun, at least as far as this particular normal human being is concerned.

- Missing: cottonwood seeds. They'd been drifting across all the non-coastal interstates since Denver and I'd gotten to like them. Now I'm either too far east or outside of cottonwood seed season, and either way there's no more cotton drifting around. Also missing: Rene, Al, Aleksa, Ruth, and Robert. There's nothing like making new friends! -- and then having to drive away a couple days later. >.<

- Passed: a guy driving a beige car with a U.S. Marines bumper sticker. Thought: Hey, mister tan Marine man, play a song for me.

- Currently residing in: the Red Roof Inn in southern Knoxville, Tennessee. Entertainment: nature! Their Nature Center here has a parking lot eerily reminiscent of the Calusa Nature Center back home. Their trails, though, are more convoluted and easier to get lost in, which I did, to my delight! There was forest and rock and the Tennessee River and lots and LOTS of bright blue damselflies. Also attempted: McKay Used Books, a warehouse of a used bookstore that turned out to have the same isolating feel as Wal-Mart. I did not know a used bookstore could feel like that.

- Next stop: Charlotte!