Fact-finding mission #59 looms?

I might - I repeat, might - go on a brief fact-finding mission in Illinois and Missouri next weekend.

My last 2 fact-finding missions were only for public protests, and I went no further than Indiana. The total length of my last 4 trips doesn't even match that of what the caviar crowd considers one trip. A mere 58 trips in 36 years is not an inordinately high number, especially considering how short most of them were.

I guarantee, however, that I'm going to catch hell from some quarters for going on a trip - because it happens every time. WITHOUT EXCEPTION, every person who complains that I go on too many trips is someone who can afford to go on many more than I do.

I work hard on this blog and my other writing gigs, and after everything I suffered in my youth, I feel as if it's not improper to take one teensy-weensy jaunt to a state that borders my own. If you're not intimately familiar with the pattern of abuse I was forced to tolerate in school, please withhold negative comments about my travels.

I live a life of peed-on records and other deprivations, so a one-night visit to a nearby state isn't too much to ask.

My planned trip is by no means a certainty. It's weather permitting - and illness permitting. Let's get this straight right now: If I have to cancel because of illness, I'm going to be very, very, VERY angry. Readers of this blog will not hear the end of it for as long as this blog stays in business.

I can handle canceling it because of weather. But if it's canceled by illness, it will be because of others' sheer thoughtlessness.

With that, I better charge up the Eyewitness Cam battery and plan out a route!