Day 18 -- CO, SD

As always I was incredibly comfortable and well treated at Jerry and Cheryl's and Lindsay even gave up her bedroom to me -- she got the air mattress. I left Jerry and Cheryl's early this morning and was in Wyoming in no time. After a few miles on the interstate I got off on two lane federal highways. The highways are so uncongested, smooth and straight (and unpatrolled) that I set the cruise on 80 mph and burned up the road for hours. Someone told me recently that the winds in Wyoming blow constantly and if today was typical, he was right. Really strong crosswinds. I was so glad to be in a low slung aerodynamic car because the wind didn't bother my driving at all. The first word that popped into my head while I was cruising was desolate. Frankly I was a bit nervous about breaking down in the middle of nowhere. Not that there was any reason to break down; it was just kind of scary.


A couple hours into the drive I finished my sixth audio book and that was it. My MP3 was in the trunk, so AM radio was my next choice. The book I finished was Paranoia by Someone Or Other. I have listened to it before and it's mildly entertaining but as with so many popular works of fiction, the characters, particularly the protagonist behaves irrationally. Like the young damsel in horror films When youwant to say "Don't go in there!" But on AM radio you get a real treat; anytime you use the autoscan to find the best signals, whether you're in Utah, Idaho, Montana, Colorado or South Dakota, you get Rush Fucking Limbaugh. The moron. I don't care what your political are or how conservative you are, you can't possible be anything but offended by the simple minded shit the comes out of his mouth. Oh yes, all liberals are out to destroy the country and only the brave no nonsense right wing can save us. As Al Fraken would say "Rush Limbaugh is a big fat liar." Fortunately I found an ESPN Radio station and listened to it -- speaking of simple minded shit! But it's innocuous and I enjoy it. I can scream you're an idiot at the radio -- with Limbaugh I just get nauseous.



I don't think I did anything really stupid today -- let's change stupid to absent minded. And the stranger encounter is zero as usual.

I drove from J and C's house to Custer, SD with almost no breaks -- nothing to eat but a cereal bar. Then wolfed down some lunch and drove to Mt. Rushmore. Not a good idea. I had some problems at Rushmore but aside from that the four guys didn't seem to have changed much. However, everything else has. They completely rebuilt the place with a 3 story parking structure and a new viewing terrace and an amphitheatre. On the way I passed Crazy Horse which was different in the you could recognize the face. The rest -- not so much.

So I drove on to Wall, SD and yes, I went to Wall Drug. Biggest collection of useless junk in the USA. I did buy an audio book by Sue Grafton. Tomorrow I think I'll swing through Badlands Nat'l Park and then on to La Crosse, WI.