I am pleased to report that we successfully
completed our mission on Saturday evening,
despite encountering some delays and
difficulties.

On our way to Columbus we encountered
about a mile of highway that was backed up
due to an accident; this delayed us about
20-25 minutes and made us late arriving at
the airport. Travholt's flight landed on time at
6:30 and we arrived at the airport at about
6:35. However, since Travholt's bag ended up
being the second-to-last one off the baggage
claim belt, our delay didn't affect our overall
time.

We located the baggage claim area that
Travholt's flight was waiting at, but I was
unable to spot him amidst the mass of
people, so we made our way to an information
center. We asked the woman at the info center
to page "Travholt" for us. She seemed a little
confused at first, but at the time I hadn't a clue
how to pronounce Travholt's real name. (It
sounds like "Yearn.") She mispronounced his
alias "Tra-vote," but he recognized it anyway
because a few moments after the second
page, up he strolled.

It took us a few minutes to make our way out
of the airport, and then we left, but since all of
us were pretty hungry, we started looking for a
place to stop and eat right away. We spotted
an exit that had a Chipotle, a Mexican
restaurant that's a favorite of my wife and
mine, so that's where we ate. I didn't realize
how long it would take, or I would have
stopped someplace quicker and we would
have eaten in the car. As it was, we didn't
leave the restaurant until about ten till eight,
and we were supposed to be meeting famous
and Monkeyman at our house at 8:30!

So the next objective was finding a pay phone
so I could call famous and tell her we were
going to be late. That ended up delaying us
even more, because the first exit LIED to us;
the signs said there was a BP and a
Speedway but we got off and found NOTHING,
and had to go a mile or two down the road
before we could turn around and get back on
the interstate. We finally found one at a gas
station a few miles further down the highway,
and called famous around 8:10. Luckily, she
and Monkeyman were running behind too, but
not as far behind as we were getting. I told her
they were welcome to sit on our patio swing in
the back yard until we got there and that I
thought we'd be there around 9:20.

Well, we had to stop once AGAIN so my son
Jonathan could go to the bathroom, and I filled
up the gas tank. We ended up getting there
around 9:35.

It was an interesting drive home, listening to
Travholt's accent and trying to understand
what he was saying above Jonathan's
constant nonsensical prattle and singing.
Travholt had some interesting observations
about the landscape which boiled down to "It's
flat." Of course, most people just say that
about Ohio; he was saying it about the entire
country; having just flown in from California at
a window seat, I suppose he was in a position
to make such a statement. I guess it would
look largely flat to someone used to the fjords
of Norway. At one point, as we were driving
through a hilly bit of rural countryside, Travholt
said it almost reminded him of home, but then
we rounded the bend and went down a long
stretch of road next to a cornfield, and the
moment passed.

Meanwhile, waiting for us at our house,
Monkeyman entertained himself and famous
by playing with the fireflies, which he had
never seen before. He thought they were pretty
neat, and I guess he found the cornfields
they'd seen on the way up a novelty too, since
he commented on them more than once
during the evening.

We were all too tired to play any games, so we
pretty much just sat around and talked for two
and a half hours. Everything from food to local
expressions. famous thinks everything is
cool, and to Monkeyman, "It's all good." I did
give everybody a quick tour of the house, and
MM and Travholt got to see the RinkSmiley
Mobile from RU3. Round about midnight,
famous looked at the time and said "oh man."
They left shortly thereafter. We had great time,
and I'm all the more looking forward to this
weekend.

Grishny