The reader has, no doubt, heard of Philip Greenspun, author of the famous web journal Travels with Samantha. Basically, his dog dies, so he drives across America and Canada, chatting up and taking pictures of pretty women. The Lonewacko Blogging Across America tour is simply following in his giant footsteps across this great land. Tonight, in Independence MO, I finally had my first near-Greenspunian moment of the tour.

There are several Motel 6s in KC; rather than staying in an urban location and perhaps ending up in an area I didn't want to be in, I decided to go east to a more truck stoppy location. I stopped at one of the local fast food restaurants on the way. This restaurant is known by one name in Cali and another name hereabouts. I asked one of the workers, a pretty young blonde, about it, and she quickly rattled off various statistics about who bought whom when and what happened. "It's sad I know that."

It turns out she's going for her MBA, and she's a computer administration expert who, when she had gone back to the town she was from, had helped rid their computers from virii. She hadn't worked at that chain for a year, as she had started in a management training program at another chain. Originally, the second chain had been cool with her studies, but had soon started demanding that she work more and more time. Eventually, she quit and came back.

I eventually asked her where the "artsy" area was. She couldn't think of one, other than suggesting that there was a comedy club there. There might have been some confused over whether I meant "there" to be Independence or the whole KC area. However, she also mentioned an area called "West Port" in KC. She knew someone who'd been carjacked twice there. "Should I ride my bike through there?" "No" came the response. The other workers had no idea either, as they had no time nor interest in such things.

If not for the lack of various details, this was truly a Greenspunian moment. Those details include: getting a picture, getting a name, getting a phone number, giving a drive, etc. etc.

I did, however, go back the next day and, while she wasn't there then, at least I got her name.