T minus 4 days...
Ah, South Dakota! I know I'm in my home state when the down-homey aroma of the brown-eyed Bessies lining the fences next to the interstate greets my nostrils through the ventilation system of my car...or wafts down rather more pungently from the cattle trailer I got stuck following when four lanes narrowed to two because of construction.
I feel at home when I instinctively become more alert on the last leg of my drive cross-country because I know there are deer waiting in the darkness just outside the beams of my headlights, ready to saunter across Highway 12 at any moment. Of course, I'll never see them coming because of the blinding shield of bug guts smearing my windshield.
The view of the sunset out the driver's side window from I-29 is always beautiful, though, and last night's display did not disappoint. You can see forever across the prairie, driving the interstates in the heart of midwestern farm land.
I didn't get a picture of the sunset, but here are the bugs:
See, I wasn't kidding. That downpour I drove through in Chicago, when I could barely see the semis before they nearly ran me over, because of all the water they were kicking up into my windshield? That was nothing compared to a South Dakotan bug storm.
After I clean off the guts, I'll pull everything out of my car that I just managed to stuff into it yesterday, and then the re-packing begins. It's hard to believe, but I think I really will end up in Germany by the week's end.
I feel at home when I instinctively become more alert on the last leg of my drive cross-country because I know there are deer waiting in the darkness just outside the beams of my headlights, ready to saunter across Highway 12 at any moment. Of course, I'll never see them coming because of the blinding shield of bug guts smearing my windshield.
The view of the sunset out the driver's side window from I-29 is always beautiful, though, and last night's display did not disappoint. You can see forever across the prairie, driving the interstates in the heart of midwestern farm land.
I didn't get a picture of the sunset, but here are the bugs:
See, I wasn't kidding. That downpour I drove through in Chicago, when I could barely see the semis before they nearly ran me over, because of all the water they were kicking up into my windshield? That was nothing compared to a South Dakotan bug storm.
After I clean off the guts, I'll pull everything out of my car that I just managed to stuff into it yesterday, and then the re-packing begins. It's hard to believe, but I think I really will end up in Germany by the week's end.
