10:00am, Sept. 25 and we're off!  The "stuff" of our travel is easily absorbed by our Subaru.  Cascade and Long Valley should be looking a bit different when we return in 5 or 6 weeks.  Right now the only hint of autumn is a slight frostbite on our squash plants and a general brown tinge to the grazing lands around here.  So why are we doing this?  Of the some 25 definitions for the word "trip" in our dictionary, none of them really provide a rationale for why Ruth and I want to make this journey.  Other trips have been about adventure, escape, business, etc. but this one is about gaining a sense of place.  We're visiting some friends and family that we've never visited on their home turf.  We're seeing where things happen, e.g. where the NezPerce finally surrendered, where Theodore Roosevelt developed a conservation ethic, the hubub of where national policy is made in Washington DC.  My guess, seeing the physical context of these places will add much to the facts we've accumulated about people and events that happened.  We'll see about that...