Last night, at a Motel 8 in Kewanee (18m East of Cambridge), I decided it was about time to check the total length of my trip against the maps I have. You'd have thought I'd have done that before now, but I reckoned my rough estimate (based on the Northern Tier) would be close enough. Turns out that it's 375 miles shy of my real total, 4675 miles. First reaction was a slightly anxious gloom - I don't like extra miles, and I can't extend my trip - but once I'd done some hasty recalculations (with thanks to the waitress at the Kewanee Chinese restaurant who leant me her calculator), I figured that I should be fine: fact is, I’m making good progress; and in my pre-trip calculations I built in a bit of space for give and take.
