Day 58: Tomorrow we leave Philadelphia

We will be taking the train all the way across the country, calling in Pittsburgh for dinner on Monday evening, spending a day in Chicago then taking the South Western Chief to Los Angeles.  Our final destination is Joshua Tree.  Although I love Philadelphia, I'm looking forward to being on the road again, for reasons related to our destination and for reasons to do with travel in its own right.

• I'm looking forward to being in a hot, dry climate rather than a hot, muggy one.  It's a matter of personal taste and health.  Philly's dampness tends to bring me out in a rash.
• I'm looking forward to being in a wilderness, rather than trapped in the urban sprawl. I can't wait to go hiking and climbing, see the stars, draw plants and avoid rattlesnakes.
• I'm looking forward to getting there, on a train across the whole US, with all those spaces in time on a train in which there are so many things I won't be able to do that I'll end up doing some of the ones I really wanted.
• I'm looking forward to a change of scene, just for the sake of the sharpened awareness I get from new places.
• I'm looking forward to having a whole new set of furniture, living space and a neighborhood to explore and get used to.
• I'm looking forward to Mike not working office hours out of the home any more, since that put a lot of pressure on me and Antonia.
• I'm glad that packing up all my stuff gave me the opportunity to review it and get rid of any accumulated uneccessary items - mostly paperwork.  I was starting to get that encrusted feeling.

I don't really have a list of plans for Joshua Tree.  Just a general expectation of hiking, reading, natural history and astronomy.  I expect we will be in our element and won't have to work too hard to entertain ourselves. We may have to re-arrange our schedules a bit to avoid the worst of the heat of the day.