September 14th, 2025. Oh, hello WEST.

When they’re talking about the lonesome highway, this is what they’re speaking of. I’ve sent my mom a couple of photos, and e’r a creature of the big city she asks if something’s gone wrong because there’s no cars. In this setting, low-hanging clouds and gentle rains are actually a real positive

Heather hugging the biggest buffalo in the world. He Lives in Jamestown, SD.

Good morning, North Dakota. Nope. Montana. Good morning Montana. No state change today so I will probably get it right. Second to last new state to play. Though with the new states we got a couple of “real” bookings, these last two are just open mics. I’d tried coffeehouses, colleges, bars, libraries… no bites. Montana had a tight 48 hour window limited to the corridor we’d be passing through; Alabama was even tighter with a 24 hour window and just the northern tip of the state being the geographical target. Hard to throw a dart at such a small bullseye when you don’t know the territory.

A beautiful little preserved church in Jamestown, SD. Jesus was quite firmly in the house.

I guess in keeping with the idea that tonight’s an open mic, I had nightmares about my OWN open mics. Last night I dreamt that we were back home, stuck in traffic on 495, circling the Beltway, creeping slowly. And people kept running up beside the car and asking me questions about signup. Some people were pretty unhappy with the answers, and they’d run alongside the car or even try to climb in. I tried to think of it as “look at how popular it is” but it felt like being torn apart.

Montana is beautiful and doesn’t deserve such psychic taint.

Yesterday was purely a driving day, but not a bad one. We got up in Fargo, ND and struggled briefly with cats and google. The former were still terrified of us and when I came out of the shower I inspired a spectacular, TikkyTokky-worthy scrabbling PANIC as the two cats tried to climb over one another in an effort to escape my existence.

Hee! I’d play here. (Stage in Jamestown SD)

The general store attached to the RV park attached to scenic / historic / touristy Jamestown, SD is an interesting construction. We caught them just as they were closing up and kinda regretted it. Heavy steel doors wedged open so we can enter,

Though they had watched us cautiously from across the apartment during our stay in Fargo, they only approached us late at night, poking at us presumably in the hope that we’d died. Opening our eyes or rolling over send them scurrying.

Yeah, the last 48 hours weren’t ideal. Though a very fun show, our sleeping arrangements were a little hard. I took pride in knowing that my 50-year old body is still ready to sleep two nights on a denuded couch, metal strutwork be damned.

These cool metal sculptures were scattered down a stretch of road dubbed the Enchanted Highway in North Dakota. Check out the work of Gary Greff if you want to know more!

HOWEVER – Montana is beautiful and does NOT DESERVE SUCH PSYCHIC TAINT!

Hell, neither does North Dakota.

Our drive yesterday was a beautiful, straight line through the High Prairie of America, crossing wriggling rivers time and time again, watching cows and horses as we passed them by and admiring huge fields of, alas, past-their-prime sunflowers. It’s more playful, interesting country than Kansas, which is hundreds of miles south of us on the same parallel. Somehow driving this far west on the northern roads feels more productive than doing it on the I-70 corridor. Eventually we hit a patch of heavy rains, but nothing like the epic, truly Biblical storms that we know the West can throw at us when truly inspired.