The road trip was lovely. We set the GPS to 'avoid all highways' and took our time meandering down to  Gulfport, MS, then to New Orleans for a few days before heading north to Oxford. We ate and drank well,  stomped all over the Garden District and French Quarter, drove out to Grand Isle to see some of the delta,  bought a pile of books, and came home to find the house still standing. It was hot and steamy, and we had a great time. We've never been to Oxford, and it was the perfect end to the trip,  both to prime the pump for more Faulkner (pics below) and to visit with a dear friend of my wife who teaches there. After Oxford, we trekked across southeastern TN back toward home, which included a  substantial stretch of the Buford Pusser Memorial Highway. Friends, I maintained the speed limit just to be safe.

I am enjoying the downtime before my studies ramp back up in August. I'm heading into my final online class, which means this is the last time I'll need to juggle multiple classes at once.

Roadside lunch from Harry’s Po-boys, Larose, LA

Summer reading: A Canticle for Leibowitz and The Nicomachean Ethics. For Spanish practice, still working through El Aleph (Borges) and Introduccion al Cristianismo (Ratzinger). We’re about to do a bit of road-tripping through Louisiana and Mississippi, so a couple of audiobooks are also lined up. The plan is to head south to the Gulf coast, then westward to New Orleans, loiter a bit, head to Oxford, and then home. Outside of picking out a few potential restaurants and arranging the hotels, planning has been pretty minimal, which suits both of us just fine. Loosely-structured slowness is the point after the absolute insanity of the last few months.

I am still unpacking the treasures of the class on desert spirituality, which I just wrapped up. My copies of Cassian’s Institutes and Conferences are now heavily marked up. Great stuff and certain to be fruitful in the years to come.

Currently reading: El Aleph / The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges 📚 I absolutely loved Ficciones and am looking forward to savoring this one, too.