Highway ironing

    Night before last I noticed that I sleep a LOT better when the heat is running as much of the night as is possible. Or to put it another way, that white noise puts me out. After a brief, exhausting bout of thinking, it occurred to me that I might be able to find free white noise apps for the Droid. And I did! The one I tried first didn't have a lot of choices and few were good. I tried Airplane Ride, but it was too loud, and Crickets. The latter I could sleep with, but wound up having odd (but strangely, non-outdoor) dreams. I've found another app with vastly more choices. I'll try it out tonight.
    When I was a lad, a theme park opened near Charlotte called Carowinds. At the time, I-77 didn't run from Columbia to Charlotte, so we had to take US 21 to visit. I remember a wonderfully rolling highway, almost as fun as the roller coasters we were on our way to ride. Today, just for a hoot (and to avoid getting locked in in Olympia for the last USC home game of the season), I went up to Charlotte, bringing Paul and taking US 21. Those weasels ironed it out! It was hardly rolling at all. The part that's still fun was the stretch between Ridgeway and Great Falls, but the rest was no more fun than the interstate.
    On the other hand, it was an absolutely perfect autumn day and the colors were glorious almost the entire way, so it was a whole lot prettier than the interstate. And traffic on I-77 is a lot more rugged than it used to be, so it sure was a lot more restful than the interstate. But for roller coaster fun, I guess I'll have to shell out for Carowinds. Since my neck got better, that'll be a lot more worthwhile place to visit than the last time I went.
    In Charlotte, we ate wonderful Eritrean food at Meskerem, bought CDs we aren't going to admit to at adjacent CD Warehouse (OK, I got Best of Al Stewart, John Mellencamp's eponymous, Robert Earl Keen #2 Live Dinner, Life's Rich Pageant and a Jimmie Lunceford compilation. All for $10.) And hit the Giocometti exhibit at the Bechtler, free for both of us because they honored their reciprocal agreement and Paul's Cola. Museum of Art membership. It was awesome, too. So a brilliant day, and still a show to go to tonight. The Monkey will eat me alive!