First thing in the morning one of my wheel caps gained independence, never to be
seen again. Other than that, the day was very uneventful, relaxing, and good. I
just computed that I am almost halfway through my vacation, and the idea of
upcoming EE282 and CS347 scared me, especially the knowledge that I would miss a
week. Then when I heard that a Delta airplane lost a part of its wing while
airborne I was also reminded of the pleasures of air travel (I am sure the
farmer on whose field the wing landed will sue Delta because the corn got
traumatized). However, being back at Stanford will allow me to connect to the
internet (assuming my PC is fixed) and check out the web site of the Vatican - www.vatican.va
- where supposedly starting this weekend you will find a transcript of all that
the Pope said. What more did you ask for? I'd see www.god.com as more
appropriate, but who am I to argue.
After
all of the above deep reflections and considerations, I chose the inland route
between Rockhampton and Mackay, first because of the relatively heavy Easter
traffic on the coastal route and because I wanted to give the sea a few more
days to clear out. On the way through the plains and hills I took several
extended breaks, on one of which I could observe the passionate mating of
dragonflies. Boy, they do it in mid-flight and for quite a while! While
supposedly a Canon 1N had the 2nd fastest autofocus on this world at that time,
it was absolutely overrun with focusing on these frantic insects, and so I had
to switch to good old manual. Not that I had more luck, though, and with a ratio
of 4:36 I was quite happy.
Because
of all these breaks I forgot to feed the monster and also to look for a habitat.
By the time I satisfied the needs of one of us by sucking in 72L unleaded, it
was dark as a good night will ever get and the best thing I could find was
literally in the middle of someone's sugar cane fields. They have these nice
roads about all 500m or so through the fields, and so I stuck my nose into one
which was not too muddy. Since I get up around sunrise I shall escape unnoticed.
Tomorrow then the last drive north, to my final destination, Townsville.