Well, Claire's on the road.

My loss is hopefully the gain of somebody who'll watch out for her. I've always been anxious that way, and would have been much happier about this trip if I could have gone along to take care of stuff. It's gonna be a long couple of days till I know she's safe.

So I'm gonna ask any readers in the western states to stand by. I can only get mobile in a real emergency, and since I'm at one extreme end of the journey it would probably be a great time before I could reach her in any case. I can't give details about the route because I only have the vaguest idea what it is, and couldn't say on a blog in any case. But in case of trouble - there's no reason to expect trouble, but I do worry - I may be yelling for help.

ETA: Well, she didn't get very far today. Car trouble before she even got out of the state. It doesn't sound like anything really bad and though it stranded her and she had to get towed back to the city, at least she didn't get stranded anywhere bad - the worst she suffered was boredom and frustration. The truck's in the shop now, but they won't be able to get to it for a while. Fortunately it's a 7-day shop. Sounds like the sort of trouble you'd get the first time you tried to pull a trailer long-range, which is probably fixable without horrible expense - though the tow already cost her cruelly.