New York to Istanbul - Prelude

As my full time job will be consuming my life for a while, I've decided that this blog must go into a sort of summer re-run mode. My apologies to those who have already heard the story of my 2007 trip to New York and Istanbul, but I hope there are enough people who haven't to make the following posts based upon that trip entertaining:



Taking Interstate 80 across the Alleghenies is like driving through a DaVinci sfumato.  Distance is not measured by perspective or vanishing point, but by the miscible layers of fog and mist which blend into an indistinct horizon.  Of course, I should mention that a similar effect is starting to apply to the interior of my car.

I crack the driver's side window an inch lower.  The overstuffed ashtray below my dashboard CD player has taken on an exotic, almost organic, appearance- like a sea anemone with emphysema.  I've got a carton of cheap cigarettes and an expensive bottle of scotch (both to be bartered in exchange for a couch to sleep on), it's raining cats and dogs, and Harrisburg is still another 200 miles away.

It must be summer...