As the lunacy of the 2008 Presidential Campaign continues to accelerate to a fevered frenzy here in Iowa, I'm happy to learn that we have our own nutjob favorite son in the field. From reading his posts thus far, something tells me Dave Burge has been sniffing around a few too many anhydrous ammonia tanks. Still, his rantings make more sense that the policy statements of most of the so-called "serious candidates". Is it January 2009 yet? SIGH!

Two of my tech-related interests intersect today. First, I love new tech toys, especially the Web 2.0 widgets popping up seemingly everywhere today. Second, there are a number of blogs I've read, pretty much daily, for a number of years. It was the inspiration of these writers that finally prodded me to try my hand at blogging.

So, on to the intersection. One of my favorite blogs is Dustbury, the chronicle of a fellow curmudgeon, based in the Sooner state. Every year, the author of Dustbury, CG Hill, embarks on a "World Tour", a driving vacation of nearly two weeks' duration; these junkets remind me of some of the trips I took in the ancient past, before I had three kids and two dogs to figure into the equation. Anyway, the chronicles of the World Tours are some of Hill's best writing, and I look forward to the Tour every year.

This year's Tour just started this week, and as it happens, I saw a post elsewhere about a new feature on Google Maps, My Maps. Checking it out this morning, I found that one can create a personalized, public map, with placemarks and route lines. I just couldn't resist -- I decided to use the scant details in the Dustbury posts to try to track the World Tour route. Fun, and to that not-insignificant blog community who might be following along with Hill, possibly interesting. Here's the map as it stands so far -- not perfect, but a learning experience. And that's why I like the 'net anyway.....there's always something new to learn.