Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
It's remarkable how the nature of my cross-country ride has altered in just a few days.
Less than a week ago I was negotiating the Dakota plains in the heat of August, but over
the weekend, as though a big clock had gonged, impossible to ignore, summer shifted to
fall. The flat plains with distant horizons that give you the feeling of being lost in a vast
universe gave way to undulating cornfields and woods that hug you like the walls of a
corridor.
Also in the last few days I've had two déjà vu experiences, both harking back to my
first transcontinental trip in 1993; and over the weekend I reached the Mississippi River,
which I guess means I'm halfway home, symbolically at least.
In any case, in my head I'm in the East now, and everything feels slightly less daunt-
ing; there's more familiarity in the air. Most of the people I know in the world are closer
to me now—physically, I mean—than they have been in many weeks. I find that com-
forting.
A few days ago, Thursday, I crossed from North Dakota into Minnesota, and my odo-
meter clicked over two thousand miles. I passed through Ada, a weathered farm com-
munity, and stayed the night in the only place I could find, the Shooting Star Casino in
