Bad, Bad Blogger

No particular excuses. Well, I started an entry and apparently erased it instead of saving it, but it wasn't particularly memorable anyway.
However, since I've blogged, I've driven to Amherst, Massachusetts and back, been to Boston for the first time, been to Kansas City, seen the Saw Doctors, and seen Bruce Springsteen and the E St. Band.
So, I could claim to have been busy, but the truth of the matter is that I've had plenty of time if I really had something memorable to say, but I cannot seem to find an overriding theme to my summer. I mean this would be bragging if I weren't such a tightwad and such a homebody(do those go together?). I managed to see both of the big oceans, went to San Francisco, Boston, Napa, Amherst, Northampton, and New Haven. I went through or briefly was in Phoenix, Oakland, Cleveland, Springfield, Mass., and Las Vegas and came witin a few miles of Niagara Falls, nixing a stop, for time reasons.
I encouraged a novice gambler, giving her $20 while in the Las Vegas Airport. She got bored of the slot and cashed out over $15, cutting her losses a lot better than her father. We ate breakfast on the patio of the Napa River Inn, watching the river flow.
We managed to meet up with every friend of ours who still is in the San Francisco area, including one we hadn't seen since 1981 when we left.
We rented vehicles for a total of 17 days, has to be a record. Actually, I'm pretty sure we had not rented cars for a total of 17 days before this summer. We spent about a dozen nights in hotels/motels, ranging from the one in Napa, clearly the nicest place I have ever stayed in as an adult, to a Super 8 in Angola, Indiana which had the thinnest towels I have ever seen. Otherwise it was a nice, clean place to sleep in while you're doing nearly 800 miles a day on the road.
The most expensive gas we bought was at a travel plaza on the section of the New York State Thruway, at $4.25, while the cheapest was $3.48 in Lincoln. Actually, we paid something like $4.72 in San Francisco. The $4.25 was the high for the driving trip to Massachusetts.
I have several disjointed comments:
How did people take road trips before GPS?
The two concerts couldn't have been more different, except they were both profoundly enjoyable, as Jackson Browne says, "11 on a scale to 10".
I am sorely afraid that this version of the E St. Band may never tour again. One of them died during this tour, ending his touring career, and another can barely make it up the steps to the stage. They say new hips are on the horizon for him.