10 July 2006

Spotting Glinda's castle in the distance

I'm starting to prepare for the Munchkin Convention next month. Last year, this annual convention moved from Harrisburg to Princeton, New Jersey, a fine college town that happens to be (a) where I have dear relatives, and (b) closer to my home. So I'm very happy with the locale.

The one drawback is that when I attended in Harrisburg, I enjoyed visiting the rural parts of Lancaster County as I drove to Philadelphia to visit my grandparents. And on a certain road I know, when the weather is right, you can see Glinda's castle, much as Dorothy and her companions did in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz:

The Monkeys had set them down near a farmhouse, and the four travelers walked up to it and knocked at the door. It was opened by the farmer's wife, and when Dorothy asked for something to eat the woman gave them all a good dinner, with three kinds of cake and four kinds of cookies, and a bowl of milk for Toto.

"How far is it to the Castle of Glinda?" asked the child.

"It is not a great way," answered the farmer's wife. "Take the road to the South and you will soon reach it.

Thanking the good woman, they started afresh and walked by the fields and across the pretty bridges until they saw before them a very beautiful Castle.

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