My travels in early 2001: Andrew Hodges

Re-entry to America 

Gran Canaria: pages 1 | 2 | 3
America (east): pages 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
America (west): pages 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 and page 10
More pages will follow.

On the bright side

Thursday 1 February 2001

 I'm flying from London to Boston on American Airlines. The flight is delayed by an unusual London fog, so the great circle becomes a long sunset. The Earth revolves beneath while we remain on the bright side.

Next to me, a British man of about 70 tells me all about how he used to target the Polaris missiles against Russia. (I don't believe him.)

The first twinkles of light from Labrador. I remember how the Europeans first settled from the far north-east, hunting for fish and furs.

Déja vu

The last time I was in America, Reagan was president. As George Bush II takes over, I make a comeback.

I look at that thin troposphere over the curve of the earth. Looking on the bright side: I'll be dead before it goes seriously bad on us.

As we head southwest through Maine to Boston, I fill in (or out) the forms, with great respect for Fortress America.

I have no snails. I did not commit genocide between 1939 and 1945. Am I mentally ill? I'd be crazy to tick 'yes'.

I assume that tireless clerks of the INS will be entering and cross-checking all my details on their supercomputers.

Boston Logan airport is a zoo! I wait for my connection in the chaotic American Airlines departure area. Then an excitingly small plane takes off into the darkness over the lights of greater Boston. West... into the heart of upstate New York state.

It's nearly midnight when we arrive at Syracuse but the driver is waiting there. He takes me over the frozen upstate New York roads.

Interstate 481, route 20... I know these roads from a previous life...

Colgate, NY

Friday 2 February 2001

 This is the view from the old Colgate Inn.

I'm here at the invitation of Ken Valente in the Mathematics department, Colgate University.

Ken spends half of his time in the Colgate campus in Manchester (England); we talk of America and Europe after the Bush victory. I walk over the campus, taking a few photographs in the colourless slush.

I give my Alan Turing lecture, which is essentially this text.

It starts snowing again, hard. And I meet Ken's students.

We talk over current topics such as:

  • rich kids, drink and SUV's
  • scholarships for bright poor kids
I learn that only liberal fraternities accept black students.

Saturday 3 February 2001

I'm up before dawn. We allow extra time because of the snowstorm. I'm going down the memory superhighway, back to Syracuse, N.Y., and then on the bus to New York City.

It's travel in time as well as space for me.

Exactly 25 years ago I was living in Syracuse.



my Second Home Page

Continue:

Through the Empire State
my images



A D V E R T I S I N G

Doing research? Try us for books, computers, scanners, or monitors.
Or try to relax with a chart CD, pop CD, dvd, video, or bottle of wine.
Escape it all with flights, a hotel, holidays in europe, or short breaks.