Two weeks and four days. One minor blizzard. Torrential rain. Fascinating people. New discoveries. Just a hair over 5,000 miles driven. Endless road construction. Excellent pie (and huevos rancheros, tacos, stew, omelettes, Greek food, hamburgers, Polish food, beer ...) and some very poor food. Book signings. A couple of conferences. A boondoggle presentation. Old friends. New friends. And lots of time for thinking. This is a bit of a long winded post but I do hope that you will read it in its entirety.