Flew into Detroit from Philly yesterday, and from there hopped a puddle jumper into Casper, Wyoming. The winds were high and that little plane bounced around like it was suspended from a single piece of fishing wire held by an epileptic. The lady siting next to me told me that because my hazel-green eyes have a bright orange ring around the pupil I clearly have problems with my pancreas, and I should take herbs. I told her I'd be glad to look at the wide selection of herbs and tinctures she had available on her website. :-) The lady sitting behind me groaned "Oh boy, oh boy, oh no" for the last 1/2 hour of the ride.

Anyhoozle, met up with Rob at the airport and we jumped in the trusty Forester, grabbed some lunch at a greasy spoon, and then zoomed off to find the WY-NE-SD tri-point. Didn't even need the GPS; it's nice to have a cartographer around with 8762376 flavors of way-cool maps on the laptop.

Afterwards, we drove up to Belle Fourche, SD where we washed the car (it was covered in mud from the tri-point excursion), grabbed some dinner and the cutest hotel room ever. Woke up to a beautiful morning feeling like a rock star... I had about 3 hours of total sleep over the previous 48 hours, so getting some even semi-fitful sleep is a vast improvement.

I am typing this from an internet cafe called Mish Mash, which is essentially some lady's house. They serve coffee and "home cookin'" - and it's just this lady cooking you something in her kitchen, like your friend's mom would do if you were visiting. We're sitting at her dining room table, and I'm using her home PC. (Internet Cafe. I love it.) Just ate a homemade cinnamon roll that had 47 metric tons of butter melted onto it and a killer cup of unpretentious coffee served with real cream-- so thick I thought it had gone bad... but I guess I just havent seen real cream-cream for a while.

It's a beautiful morning, and I'm very happy to be seeing the country at a slower pace nowhere near the interstate. (Think dirt roads and jeep tracks, yo.)

Today will rock rock rock: Going to the US Geographical Center (the center point of all 50 states), The Cosmos Mystery Spot (my favorite place in the whole entire world ever), the Badlands, and we'll do a drive-by of Mr. Rushmore and Crazy Horse. We'll grab the SD-MT-WY and depending on light and weather, maybe ND-SD-MT tripoint.

I've visited 48 of the 50 states, and all I have left are Alaska and North Dakota. It will be so tempting to just walk three feet to my north and enter North Dakota, but ND is my dad's 50th state and I promised him I'd do that state with him soon. So, delay the graitification, yo.

Anyway, hope to camp tonight conditions permitting-- Rob brought his telescope. Rizzock!

Doubt I'll be able to post again until I get home, but that's just the day after tomorrow.

Thinking of good friends and ninjas.

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