Both of my middle siblings are on their way to the West Coast. One is taking the northern route, the other the southern route. My sister, Erin Dotsey, the original middle child, left from Lexington, Kentucky a couple days ago, where she was staying with our grandparents, Baba and Pap. She went north through Indiana, cut through Illinois and Missori, skimmed the borders (but didn’t go into) Kansas and Nebraska on her way to Iowa, where she then cut over through South Dakota. Erin called me this morning to tell me how funny it was listening to the radio up there with their Dakota accents. She even stopped at a rest stop and put her cell phone on speaker while she walked around so I could hear people talking. It was hilarious.

A little while later, Erin asked if I could Mapquest her to Mount Rushmore. It turned out that Mount Rushmore was only about 25 miles off her route, so she stopped there. She called me and told me what a cool site it was.I haven’t heard from my brother, the other middle child, Adam Dotsey, directly yet. From what Renee Sikes, his girlfriend(?) and my and Amanda’s current housemate said, Adam and his friends Joe Runkle and Troy are taking a very twisty route to San Diego. They’re basically going everywhere that Troy’s family is. It makes sense in that they don’t have to pay for places to sleep or sleep in their cars I guess, but I think they’re putting on a lot of extra miles going the way they are.

I have to admit, I admire the two of them for doing what they’re doing, and I am in fact a little jealous. I’d like to be able to say I’ve been to all fifty states, or at least the forty-eight contiguous states. With my job, it’s actually something I could do, but Amanda wouldn’t be able to get away from her job for however long that would take and I know she wouldn’t want me to leave her home alone for a few months. Hell, I wouldn’t leave her and be away from her for that long myself. So good for Erin and Adam for doing this while they can.

I had lunch at Subway with Ben Lambeth today. He said he’s pretty sure that he and his wife, Jessica, will be moving to Greensboro or Winston-Salem, somewhere in the Triad area (thanks Jason). They’ll probably move at the end of the year or the beginning of the next, the wait being Jessica’s current job. Then, where exactly they move will depend on where Jessica gets a job, even though it’s Ben’s job that will be moving them. He will be traveling around the region a lot, so for his part, it doesn’t matter where they live, so long as it’s not hours away from the Triad like they are now.

Amanda picked up our traditional Buffalo Wild Wings Tuesday night dinner. Actually, I’ve been eating a chicken finger wrap more than I have the boneless wings lately. We watched a little tv and I played some Age of Empires III (a gift of sorts from Adam) and, later, some Civ IV. Amanda came upstairs after a while and played Spider Solitaire on the laptop. She’s won two games in as many days, which I hear is an unlikely feat.

Zach Dotsey
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