Day 18: Lewisburg UPDATE! More Lewisburg! Stadler Center! Bucknell! **** Our running joke about loose ends is that we will &;take care of it in Spokane,&; which is what we said in Seattle when things seemed less planned out than they should be. Re-pack the napkins, plates, cups and coffee stirrers so they don&;t collapse on Anthony&;s head every hour? We&;ll take care of it in Spokane. Make a sign that reads &;Do Not Throw Away Liquids!&; to put on the rubbish bin so I don&;t have to change my shirt four times a day? We&;ll take care of it in Spokane. Call to confirm we have a place to the park the bus overnight in 49 different cities in the next 49 days? Spokane. Well, Spokane came and went and very little got taken care of except a decent amount of sushi. And since Spokane we have watched a number of other proverbial Spokanes come and go. Lewisburg was the most recent and good lord did we have plans. We had planned to arrive early and clean the bus, look over the next week&;s schedules, buy Linas some gaffing tape, shave, shower, etc. Of course the drive to Lewisburg took us much longer than expected and when we finally arrived in Lewisburg on the amazingly calm and beautiful Bucknell campus we had about an hour to do all that had needed to be done since Spokane. Betsy Wheeler had arranged for a few hotel rooms for us, so our first priority was to forget all obligations and sprint madly for the hotel room showers. I did so only to realize I had forgotten my razor, shaving cream, soap, deodorant, etc. back at the bus. Damn. Everyone else looked like newly scrubbed baby piglets with fresh blood transfusions when we arrived at the Stadler Center for the reading, which was one of the best of the tour. Matt Hart, whose work I hadn&;t known before, gave an incredible reading which the crowd lapped up (photo below). Immediately after the reading, we said brief hellos to Bruce Smith and Paula Clossen Buck, both of whom gave exceptional readings, and then followed Betsy to a tapas restaurant with plate after plate of delicious food, and glass after glass of inebriating wine. Stumbling back to the hotel, I felt like I had fallen through a worm hole into a Thomas Jefferson fever dream (colonial houses, frat boys and typewriter repair shops), one which did not break as I had hoped in the morning when walking to breafkast it seemed every other male was out on the boardwalk with a pipe in his mouth and a hammer in his hand giving me accusatory looks for being such a bumbling wastrel. Thank you Betsy, Beth and Bucknell for treating us so kindly. We miss you already. Bucknell Audience Listening to Matt Hart 034.jpg

Matt Hart in Lewisburg [1:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

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September 23rd, 2006

Day 17: Pittsburgh Day 19: Buffalo