Guest Papers: Vacation Edition (Part 1)

 
As you've probably noticed, I haven't posted here in a little while.  Part of the reason is due to the compressed nature of my current college course and another is a lingering bout of bronchitis that I can't seem to shake.  One last cause for this absence has been the preparation for a summer vacation I've been planning since the spring.  My high school class is having a get-together this weekend and I have traveled by car back to Pennsylvania to attend.  It's been many years since I've seen many of these folks and I'm looking forward to meeting them and talking about the 'good old days'.

Unscheduled Trip Back Home

 Four days...1200+ miles...and 12 newspapers!

As I mentioned in my previous posting, a death in my extended family had me undertake a long-distance 'road trip' earlier this month.  It was an unexpected event so I had very little time to prepare for the 500-mile drive to arrive in time for the funeral.  To keep my previous blog promise, I finished my post on the Herman Cain campaign stop in the wee hours of the 1st and turned in for a couple of hours of sleep before heading out of town early that same morning.  On the way out, I stopped for gas and liquid refreshments and picked up a copy of the local paper to compare my online work to that produced by Dayton Daily News staff writers Lynn Hulsey and Justin McClelland.  Satisfied that I hit all the salient points of that visit, I cracked a smile at the register, paid for my goods, and strapped myself into the driver's seat for the long ground trek ahead.