John Denver, in his song Goodbye Again, sings that “I have to go to see some friends of mine, some that I don’t know, some that aren’t familiar with my name.  It’s something that’s inside of me, not hard to understand, it’s anyone who’ll listen to me sing.”

Well, I am not that bad, but I am perhaps more willing than I should be to travel to speak to strangers.  I am off this morning for Washington, where I will speak about Seward this evening with a Lincoln book group, and then speak on Saturday at the National Book Festival.  In between, I hope to get in three full days of Stanton research at the Library of Congress.

Like Denver, I love to get out and meet new people, share with them.  But I also hate leaving home, leaving wife and daughter and dog.  It is an odd life, not quite content to stay put, not quite content on the road.

Hope to see some of you this weekend in Washington at the Festival:  speaking at the history and biography tent on Saturday September 21 at 11:50 am.