> I did ask Cynthia to distribute this news, but hey, I'm in skool, and there ain't nothing better to do, so here goes.
>
> I will be making the big transatlantic trip to the States in late July, with my parents. We've hired a car, and we'll be doing a road trip from New York to San Francisco, the car has to be in SF by about mid-August and we then have about a week to get back to New York to catch the plane back on about August 19, so just too early to make the RunkOnion, barring divine or Air India intervention.
>
> The route is about 85% certain - we'll be heading south from New York, then west to St. Louis, and then we'll follow Route 66 as far as possible. Our only goal is to hit as many National Parks as possible, and we've already decided on visiting the Grand Canyon and Death Valley If there is anyone who lives or will be anywhere near anything of interest that is vaguely near our travel path, please let me know now, so I can try and get us as close as possible to you for possible RinkMeetings, and as soon as we begin working out what to see and what to miss, I will be updating.
>
> This will be the first time I've ever been more than an hour out of synch with UK time, the first time I've ever been out of the EU/EC, the furthest I've ever been from home...oh, and my first experience of flying.
>
> More information as I get it.
>
> Zarn"goes to search for the lyrics of that song about Route 66"iwoop

If you're going to go through upstate New York you could get to meet me. I live right smack dab in the middle of the big hounds snout bit of New York. Personally I think we have a lot of interesting attractions.
The big park around here, I'm not sure if it's national, is Letchworth. It is on the Genesee River, and has two waterfalls, the upper and lower falls. You can walk over both of them by several hundred feet on a railroad track. The view is fabulous if you're not too afraid of heights.
The big hype about Letchworth is that it's supposedly where Mary Jamison, the white woman of the Genesee, lived. She's our resident celebrity. They have an Indian artifacts museum on the park, which is cool if you haven't seen it a million times. I love Letchworth, and it's a perfect example of Upstate New York vegetation and wild life. I'm not sure, but I think they have hiking trails. It's gorgeous, gorgeous country though.

Non-park wise we have a Six Flags decently close to us, and a million sites having to do with Indians. My father knows a bunch, including a tree where men were tortured by walking around with their intestines tied to a branch and a ravine where some prisoners were pushed over. Very cultural around here. And you'd get to meet me :) So if you have to pass through Western NY, stop by here.

Mel"Richly cultured"anie