Westward Bound

It's the second time I've made it almost all the way across country. Funny, both times I ended up flying home early. But I'll save that for the surprise ending. My longtime friend, Stephanie, and her husband were moving out to Seattle and that means adventure. Why should she ship her car when we can drive it out ourselves? Adventure, here we come!

We set out at 5:20am on Saturday November 5th and nearly 15 hours and 940 miles later landed in Chicago. We had the most amazing weather, and even though it was November we were wandering the streets without jackets. We checked out the Sears Tower, Navy Pier and all the *must see* buildings but what amazed me the most was definately the food. Can you say YUM! But it was a quick visit and in two days time we headed out to South Dakota.

What a perfect time to visit a palace decorated all in corn cobs?

We spent quite a few days in South Dakota. I totally fell in love with the terrain and the people. From presidents carved in mountains to wild animails there was so much to see. After seeing the Corn Palace it was time to see some more natural beauty, the Badlands. The origin of the name is unclear but speculation is that it came from when explorers came across it and declared that it was a bad land to cross. The name stuck. It may have been bad then, but it was amazing now. We saw deer, pronghorns, rabbits and bighorn sheep. This one was kind enough to pose in front of the setting sun.

Of course I fell in love with Wyoming too. Even though I was only able to stay for two days. During our travels I got a call from one of my A list prospective employers and they wanted to meet asap for an interview. Rather than look whimsical and respond that I was "on a vacation. Oh, I know I just came back from ten months in New Zealand but you only live once right?" I decided I would attempt to divert their attention. No such luck and the interviewer decided he could come to me. Of course he was coming to me in Connecticut, not me in Wyoming or South Dakota which given the circumstances would have actually been more convenient. So 3,000 miles from Connecticut I turned 180 degrees and headed straight back. The good news... I got a second interview too.