back home! we (dave, gabe, laurel and i) drove in to swat this morning just before nine, having set out at 11.30 yesterday morning and stopped in iowa city for two hours. we saw sunset near the iowa/illinois line and sunrise in central pennsylvania, and they were both wonderful. having arrived in swarthmore, i picked up a mertz key, checked my mail and went straight to sleep for six hours. aaaaahhhh...

northfield on the 12th was great, although we (laurel and i, now) got stuck in a killer traffic jam on the way down. having moved something like four miles in ninety minutes (i walk faster than that!), we got fed up at roberts, MN and drove flash the swedish tanker off the interstate, down an embankment, up another embankment, through a hole in a fence and onto a county road. whee! having (finally) arrived in northfield, we found emily and ate indian food with em and tim, after which tim and i went back to stolaf and visited for a couple of hours. good conversation...

and then we got on the road around 7.00, arriving in des moines at 10 for great soup, bread, goat cheese, sleep, and a nice leisurely morning with laurel's mom (!), homemade pancakes and waffles, and the birds in the backyard. then...right, the trip. and now, here i am. i'm *here.* for my last semester. what is that all about?!?!