This will be my last entry from the US. I can't believe it. I've spent the day pretty quietly, pottering around the house here and chatting with Steph. Only managed to get out to the local supermarket - past the alleged ten storey undergound prison! - and cook dinner. My first homemade meal in weeks!! I called Jon in DC to say goodbye, but somehow it doesn't seem real. It was nice talking to him and it made me realise I can keep in touch with the friends I've met here. But still it will feel weird being so far from [View Full Entry]

---

---

It's late here but I felt I should scribble a few words before I go to bed. Tomorrow is my last proper day in the US and it doesn't seem real that my trip is ending. Today was a very fun day. We went up to the Interstate State Park (really!?) and took a walk by the river up and down the snowy trail. Animal tracks traced the ice and the pines cast amazing, flame-like shadows over the frozen surface. Utterly beautiful. Minnesota is a delightful patchwork of lakes, waterfalls, rivers and forests. Although hunting and fishing are far to popular [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today I walked across a frozen, snow-dusted river. The St Croix River, here near Bayport where our lovely friends Jon and Steph Reid live just a while away from the Twin Cities. It's a wide, wide river. Scratching back inches of snow, we found the ice - almost black seeming with the cold water underneath. I would have thought I'd feel fear, but I didn't. I guess that is a good metaphor for my whole journey here - anticpating terror, but feeling so many other things instead. Joy, beauty, aloneness and some sadness. I can't tell you how much I find [View Full Entry]

---

---

Due to popular demand (thanks for your support!), I am hammering out this little entry while hubby has very helpfully gone to forage for hot chocolate and croissants! Yum! Chicago is a beautiful city - architecturally, it rivals NY, but it's so brutally cold! We've had to sightsee in sub zero temperatures and even walk home from a fat tomato-topped pizza through a blizzard! Haven't managed to get down to the iceberged lake because of the weather, but it looks lovely. Apparently, it's called the Windy City not because of the blasting cold, but because of hot air & politicians ... [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well, this is the end. The end of my lone star days, anyhow. I will be leaving the Swiss Family (Matt) Robinson house in DC and joining my husband in Chicago tomorrow and facing all kinds of music in my life - only some of it with a funky beat. Today was the last day of my life as a free woman. Maybe I should have a hen party tonight! There are rumours of me going for a farewell drink with Jon. But, even as he is the best friend I've made in the States, he's pretty flaky and so I [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well, I could say my day was pants - my husband put the phone down on me twice and I felt ill and miserable in my hotel room - but then! Then I dragged myself out to dinner with Dottie Lee - who designed Apollo and the Shuttle - and we were joined by Aneta Davis who wrote to me today about my book (she was an early feminist campaigner and unionist at NASA) and John Llewellyn (who helped bring back Apollo 13 and is featured in the movie!!). Over our Indian meal, we discussed all kinds of fascinating things. How [View Full Entry]

---

---

Literally. Well, literally in the way that Americans mean it. I'm not churning my Happy Meal over the floor, but I have got some kind of 'flu type virus which has imprisoned me in my room today. I got up for breakfast even though I felt achy and exhausted (just thought it was tiredness/ bit of ME) and then found I was unable to function. Went back to my room and slept, then had pizza delivered for lunch. I like eating in bed and would probably - like Proust - do much of my living from this luxurious reclining position if [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well, I think Houston may BE the problem! Okay, it's incredibly late. Okay, I'm exhausted from flying from NM and then getting to the airport only to find that the shuttle I booked ages ago wouldn't come for two hours ... Okay, so I had to get a taxi I can't afford (they swear they will reimburse me but not 'til next week ...). Okay, so they shifted my hotel and when I got here they know nothing about my pre-payment and may yet start quibbling it (and I can't pay twice!)... Okay, so it's just foggy/ smoggy as hell and [View Full Entry]

---

---

That got your attention! So did Johnson (?! I've been on my own too long??!) Space Center's Mission Control for me. I saw it today - the orginal room, with the old, pastel green consoles where all the geeks fingered their slide-rules and prayed for the Apollo missions to not f*ck up. I basically drooled all over the glass from the observation lounge where the astronauts' wives sat & hoped their unfaithful, Corvette-screeching husbands didn't come back ... I also saw another Saturn V rocket - this time much closer up (I'm still not jaded!) and then marvelled at the Gemini, [View Full Entry]

---

---

"God gives you life and he'll take it away - what you do in between is your fault." This is what Philip - my wonderful Hispanic shuttle driver to Sante Fe - told me his grandfather said to him after a long, hard life of ranching in the hills. Today was one of those days when I feel like I'm doing the right thing - that my life is going roughly towards the direction I want it to go, that I can take responsibility for my own happiness in the future. That there will be happiness. I can see writing residencies [View Full Entry]

---

---