ballincollig, lady_octavia, and I gathered at the Centre for Medieval Studies building in Toronto to leave for Kalamazoo for the last time. We'll all be coming back to the conference, but CMS is moving to Club Monaco, just up the street. Club Monaco is located on a busy intersection, so Kalamazoo departures will never be quite the same again.

We drove across Ontario and Michigan, through bruise-stained clouds and pouring rain. When we stopped for doughnuts, the sun came out. (Doughnuts are so decadently cheap here - less than half the cost they are in central London. And wonderfully varied.) For a second or two on the bridge leading into Michigan, in a very, very slow line of cars waiting for immigration, I was still in Canada while they were in America, a country and a seat away from me. At one point, we were passed by a large truck with teeth. We discussed the motto of the US (From stuff, thing.), all the usual CMS topics, and all the usual road problems which Michigan has.

We arrived with the hordes, all of whom evaporated from the conference reception half an hour later. I've seen a fraction of the cast of thousands which CMS sent down this year (Three vans!) and briefly-if-repeated talked to a_d_medievalist and juniperus. We got lost in Kalamazoo for too long, but are now much better oriented than ever before. The air smells of lilacs. Tomorrow, the conference begins in earnest.