Memorial Day

I now know why there were so many WWII programs on TV the past 2 or 3 weeks.  They were getting everyone ready for Memorial Day.  In the old days my dad's sisters would come to town on this day and visit the cemeteries where family members lie, and leave wreaths on the stones.  They could never remember from year to year where all the graves were, and spent most of the day walking the grounds.  My brother Fred, who is also a genealogist and who has an incredible photographic memory, found the markers once and now can find each one immediately.  We have relatives buried in 10 or more cemeteries in the Greater Cincinnati area.  

Today I am using my I-Mac which has a huge screen but is more difficult to move around on.  I'm not sure what the problem could be with my MacBookPro, but I'm finding typos all over emails I send out, and even changes to the subject line.  Sometimes I'll be typing along and the cursor will jump to a different place and start adding letters and words.  Usually I can catch and correct the errors, but I wish I knew what is causing it to happen.  There is a touchpad below the keys that is so sensitive it will type a letter if I simply hold my fingers over the touchpad - I don't have to actually touch it.  I like the pad for scrolling quickly, and have gotten used to it in place of a mouse.  My  iMac has a keyboard and a mouse, and I want to see if I have the same problems.  I worry that it could be something infecting my computer, although I have found no other problems on it.

No relief from temperatures in the 90's will be felt until Wednesday, but of course the forecast seems to change hourly.  I'm sick of hot weather!  (And it is still only May).

I have a stack of maps out trying to work out the best route to South Dakota.  Any way I look at it the distance from here to the DMV office in one of the small towns will be between 1600 and 1700 miles.  It doesn't seem to be any less miles if I stay on the interstates as opposed to the highways and byways.  You can easily figure out what my preference is.  

I did a couple of trip iterations on Mapquest to check mileage, and it also gives me the fuel cost.  It doesn't say, and I didn't ask for round trip figures, but the fuel cost is about double my estimate.  I don't know what Mapquest uses for average cost per gallon, but I would like to think $4 a gallon would be a fair estimate.

Now to try to find camping locations as I would prefer to camp each night along the way and then stay at a motel when I arrive at my destination.  I should be able to find Nat'l Park and Nat'l Forest campgrounds along the way, and they are easiest on the budget.  They usually aren't close to interstates, but I hope to not have to travel way off U.S. and state routes to get to the good camping spots.

I wrote a friend this morning about my planning everything down to the most minute detail, and that I will no doubt throw all the plans out the window when I hit the road!  The planning gives me great joy and keeps me out of trouble and out of the stores.