The Three-Legged Race (leg 1) or "Enter Roundabout, take 3rd, Ist, 6th exit"

Michael Scott: It is time for the great spoon and egg race. This one is with a little twist...

Stanley: There's already a twist–you're carrying an egg on a spoon

Michael: Shhhh–the person carrying the egg will be blindfolded!





I'm in Connecticut now.It's amazing how a good night's sleep can make a three hour drive (from Cape Cod) seem like nothing.


So, one week down, two to go. This past week, I traveled through the Boston suburbs, south of the metropolitan area, and through Cape Cod, all in all, 12 high school visits and the small portfolio day on the Cape. The visits were good: lots of great response from teachers and students about the presentation.

The little regional portfolio days have more character than the national portfolio days. I saw some really good work, better than last year, and completed 16 reviews in three hours, not quite the Mass Art line, which was neverending, but this was a really good showing for us. The staff at the Cape Cod Museum of Art are great, they were always making sure I had whatever I needed. Their bathrooms are funny: on the door of the women's, there is a low relief sculpture of Eve, and Adam on the men's, for good measure.

Last year I got stuck trying to get out of Cape Cod, traveling down a scary, winding dirt road for what seemed forever until I finally broke out onto the highway. This year was no exception. There are a couple of rotaries at the entrance/exit to the cape that swirl you around like maelstroms. I keep taking the wrong exit; each time I get a little closer, but no cigar, and Garmin rubs it in, saying in her brisk tone "Re-calculating!" again and again.

Note to future Berlinda: Highway 25 W is the road out.


I seem to be touring the Hilton hotels of New England and the upper midwest. (It's hard to argue against comfortable beds and breakfast in the morning.) I have stayed at so many Hilton hotels that I am now a gold member (ha!) and it seems this why they call me to make sure my room is okay. (Double ha!) Oh, and I'm making a circuit of the shopping malls in my regions as well. Again, I feel like Macon Leary: when I'm away from home, I seek the familiar, to make me feel more grounded. The same stores, the same general layout. The mall on Cape Cod is managed by the same company that manages the mall in Pensacola. The shopping mall is an enclosed facsimile of main street, in the way that natural history museum dioramas very well could be the zoos of the future.