May 01, 2008
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Southeastern Kansas is a bit hilly and so is southern Missouri. I'm finding that once I get off the plains the state roads get a bit slower and more fatiguing to drive, especially with the winds out here the past couple of days.
With the rising gas prices, I've been a bit concerned LD's gas mileage might suffer on the Interstate but that doesn't seem to be the case. At my usual 65 mph I find I'm running just a tad over 9 mpg pretty consistently.
Night camp:
Wal-Mart parking lot, Sullivan, Missouri
Over Fifty
Some of this has been painful for me, but it's all been wildly instructive. And it convinced me that nearly every person over fifty should try to find a time to sit down and engage in the same exercise, even if you never intend to publish anything. You need to think about what really meant something to you. Who did you really love. Who really made you what you are. What the seminal events did. And also it's an incredible discipline. Because I found it shocking to me what I remember and what I don't. It's shocking to me what I can remember factually and how hard it is for me to be absolutely sure about how I felt at the time. You know, how did I feel when I was 16? I don't really know.
Bill Clinton, on writing his memoir, in an interview with James Fallows, the Atlantic Monthly