a fairly uneventful day, with a short drive across south dakota. I did stop to fill up at a truck stop near Sioux Falls; this was actually my first time using one of the big truck stop nozzles instead of the regular sized ones. I noticed a big army truck hauling other, smaller trucks also filling up, and a bunch of guys in camoflage fatigues hanging around the place.

(a quick lesson in diesel: diesel will foam up when dispensed. from a large nozzle designed for big rigs, it dispenses much quicker, and therefore foams up a lot more. this means that you can get about the first seven gallons in really fast, then you have to either vent the foam or wait for it to subside then put in dribs and drabs until you get the other six gallons in-- which can take forever. there's a button on the inside of the tank that you can hit with the nozzle that will help vent the foam and speed this process up.)

It was a bit of a struggle getting the venting button pushed in with this big nozzle, and after a few minutes of struggling a couple of the army guys came up to me and one of them said, "are you sure you know what you're doing?" I looked up and he was laughing good-naturedly but i didn't find his humor all that charming. I assured them that I did, and then the other guy started asking me about the SP... turbo diesel? lots of power? mileage? he said a friend had a TDI beetle, and he was considering one, too, because he has to drive a long way to work every day and wants a car that gets good mileage. so we had a nice chat; they asked where I was from and when I told them, the first one said, "Are ya sure you're not lost?" ha ha. you're cracking me up, dude...

Monday, July 2nd: Sioux Falls, SD to Hoffman Estates, Il

one of the longer drives of the trip, this took me through minnesota and wisconsin before i reached illinois. hoffman estates is a suburb of chicago, where my friend john schuller had offered me a place to stay with him and his family and his nb Angel.

minnesota and wisconsin are starting to feel like I am back east again; the sky isn't so big, the ground is a little less flat and the vegetation is a little bit more lush. And the accents-- ah, the accents. It was in minnesota that i realized that i really do have a fascination with regional american accents, especially those in the band of states that is close to Canada, since they're more exotic to me, yet remind me of the accents that my relatives in upstate New York have.

and geez, the people are really, genuinely friendly there. and they don't stare at me like they did in the west. (really-- i never could figure out why-- but people in montana and wyoming really did have strange responses to me sometimes. i'm not sure if it was something about the way i looked, or a vibe i was giving off. or maybe i just really needed to wash my jeans.)

once a long time ago, i visited a friend in Sweden. one day i spotted a bit of ground that was covered with a layer of something lumpy and absolutely pitch black. i asked her what was that on the ground-- was it coal? she looked at me oddly and said, "that's dirt." having been raised in the south, dirt to me is usually red, sometimes kinda brown or beige. i'd never seen such rich earth before.

in minnesota, that's what the dirt looks like. i stopped for lunch in a town called Blue Earth, and indeed, the dirt had a blue cast. I didn't take a photo-- perhaps i should have, but i know the blue cast would never have shown up in a picture.

i was kind of excited about Wisconsin because, well, i really like cheese. I didn't stop to get any, though. but I told my cat about it later. (he likes cheese, too.)

I arrived at John's house in time for dinner; met his wife, also named Lisa, and their twin boys, six years old, jonathan and davis. they took me out for real italian food (they don't have that out west...) which was delicious, then john and i talked for a while about bug stuff. since he wasn't able to go to roswell this year (that's where i met him-- at roswell last year) i had to catch him up on everything that happened.

Tuesday, July 3rd: Hoffman Estates, Il to Indianapolis, In, via Chicago

the next morning i drove in to chicago to visit my friend steve. he's renovating his house, and it looks like it's going to be fabulous when it's done. the kitchen/dining area has been completely gutted; the attic, which he says was a dark, unusable space, has also been gutted, skylights put in, and a living space and a master suite with walk-in closet and a shower are in progress. they've also put a small addition on to the back of the house to make everything a bit roomier.

we went for breakfast at a place called Wishbone; i had some good hash browns (yukon gold's in big pieces with a few crispy wisps of onion) and far too much coffee. then steve drove me around the city, since i'd never been to chicago. we went around on Lake Shore Drive, then through the shopping district, where it became clear to me why my mom loves Chicago-- every catalog she gets has a huge store in this district!

Then i took off for indianapolis where Stephanie had offered me a place to stay. This was probably the most corn that I saw during my trip; it was a short drive, though, and I got to Stephanie's place not long after she got home from work.

We chatted for a bit, then went for dinner at a really nice coffeshop (I never would have guessed such a place existed in Indy) where I had a focaccia sandwich with fresh mozzarella and pesto.

Wednesday, July 4th: Indianapolis, In to Durham, NC

I decided to drive the rest of the way home from Indy. Originally, I had planned to stop in West Virginia for the night, but realized I wouldn't want to stop so close to home. The drive looked to be about 11 hours, which I felt that I could handle.

Somewhere in Ohio, around mile 7,700 (out of about 8,000 total for the trip...) I spotted another NB, white, with an unusual arch on the hatch, North Carolina plates and... lo and behold, was that a smudge of soot around the tailpipe?? I decided to tag along behind her for a while, just for kicks, and had to pick up my pace a bit to do so. She seemed like she might be drafting off of a truck that she was following quite closely.

And sure enough, the three of us got stopped. Sigh.

I could hear him giving her a lecture about following too close; I escaped that, but still got a ticket for going 70 in a 60mph zone. Oh well. After that many miles, I guess it was almost inevitable that I would screw up somehow. I'm glad that's the worst thing that happened.

Since it was the fourth, I wasn't surprised to see lots of cops out on the road so I pretty much kept the cruise control set at the speed limit or very slightly above for the rest of the trip.

The mountains in West Virgina were quite beautiful; there really are no mountains as nice as the appalachins, to me. I stopped in Mount Airy at a gas station, and heard the North Carolina mountain accent from a guy who called me ma'am (and pronounced both syllables); it grew dark and rainy, with lighning arcing across the sky as I came through Greensboro and Burlington.

Finally I was home, there was my house, and my cat, all safe and sound and happy to see me.

yay!