On the Road Again

We are traveling along the "loneliest highway in America"---Hwy. 50 across Utah and Nevada, headed to San Francisco. I-80 to the north has taken all the truck traffic, and apparently all the other traffic too, so that the only thing to break your view is an occasional tumbleweed or herd of sheep crossing the road. We literally drove for an hour without seeing another vehicle. Suddenly there were flashing lights ahead, and we came upon a highway patrol vehicle alongside what must have been a recent rollover....or maybe not so recent.

Our appointments to apply for the Visa Sejour Temporaire at the French Consulate are Wednesday morning at 9 am. We have separate appointments, so I have prepared our documents in separate folders. I am reminded of an old Calvin and Hobbes segment, and I'm sure it will ring a few bells with fans out there of the old comic strip. Calvin is doing a report on "bats" for school; and rather than putting any effort into researching the topic, he concludes that if he puts his report in a 'clear plastic folder' his teacher will be wowwed. Unfortunately, Calvin loses out as he starts out with an erroneous fact that "bats are bugs" and is immediately called down by his good friend Suzi. Well, I'm no Calvin---I've spent hours and hours negotiating on the phone with our insurance company; I've contemplated on becoming a document forger; I've photocopied and assembled all the required documents in neat little piles; but I resisted using a clear plastic folder.

The idea of driving nearly 1000 miles one-way for a 30 minute meeting with an unknown outcome does seem open for questions at this point. Are we insane? The visa officer at the Consulate one day told me that if I thought it was hard to obtain this Visa Sejour Temporaire, I ought to see how hard it is for them (the French) to get Visas to remain in the US. Point well taken! And so, perhaps, 30 midnights from now...none of this will matter.............