Malvina Forester gets inspected in May and as usual I put it off till the last full week of the month. Procrastination paid off once again, because parked in front of the West Tisbury church was a car with Hawaii plates, then when I pulled into the back lot at Kenny Belain’s garage what should I see but Kansas.

Malvina didn’t get inspected after all because the mechanic on inspection duty said her tires probably weren’t going to pass and her right front definitely wouldn’t. I immediately headed down-island to Island Tire and ordered four new ones. They came in yesterday, I had them put on this morning, and I managed to drive to Oak Bluffs and back this evening without getting busted for having an expired inspection sticker. I’ll take care of that tomorrow.

The month finished off with Wisconsin. Four is actually a good tally for May. I’m still making up for a slow January. The year’s total stands at 34. In 2021 I was up to 39; in 2020, the Covid year when travel was way down, it was 36, and in 2019 it was 38. Need I say that any month that includes Hawaii is a good month?

The Southwest is unusually solid for this time of year. Last year Nevada and New Mexico were missing at the end of May; the year before that it was Utah and Oklahoma; and in 2019 it was Utah, Oklahoma, and Kansas.

East and West haven’t linked up yet either. By the end of May they usually have, with the connecting links being Missouri and/or Arkansas, neither of which I’ve seen in 2022. We’ll see what June brings to the island.