Back in Montana

De Smet, South Dakota, is the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder. As every little girl knows, she is the author of the “Little House” series of books, which we all read when we were 8 or 9. At least, I read them all. I lived, vicariously, in those sod houses on the prairie for months when I was little.

We saw several signs along I-90 for "Dick’s 24 hour TOE Service" in Mitchell, SD. Rebecca and I had a pedicure on Saturday in Chicago. I checked to make sure the polish still looked good – nice to know that Dick was there in case I had a chip.

There are some serious problems with orange cone management in South Dakota. The cones are stored along the highway throughout the eastern half of the state, leaving the western half woefully under-coned. One poor work crew was attempting to fix a road sign with a mere 15 cones! Clearly, the Cone Manager for the State of South Dakota is having problems. Bob thought that perhaps the Department of Cones is undermanned. I’m guessing that they’ve just promoted someone from cone3 placer to cone manager, and the learning curve is still too steep. Could be that he needs to attend a couple of cone storage seminars.

Passed through Colony, Wyoming, which proudly proclaims that it is the “Bentonite Capital of the World.” (This may come as a surprise to the town of Bentonite, Michigan, which thinks that IT is the Bentonite Capital of the World, too.) The Bentonite Materials Company (a division of Halliburton) is hiring, in case anyone needs a job and wants to live in cowboy country.

US highway 212 through the northeast corner of Wyoming may be the loneliest highway in the country. It’s two lane, and almost devoid of traffic. It is also, apparently, the place where deer go to commit suicide. (Passing through Wisconsin we saw 4 fresh deer carcasses piled up together, as though they had followed Jim “Buck” Jones on to I-90.)

Tomorrow we're back in Washington. It'll be strange, having the same license plate as everyone else. I can't wait to get home to my new kitchen!