To: OnTheRoad

Fr: Richard Dean <richdean@clark.net>

Subject: leaving SF

Hey all... realized a little too late that the email I thought I sent from Chicago never left the out box... so much for my hi-tech prowess :-)

So upon leaving Chicago, I noticed pretty quickly that Wisconsin Dells -- one of the tackiest and most beautiful places in the country and origination point for those annoying tourist "ducks" World War 2 vehicles that prowl Boston -- was on the way. Of course I had to stop and ended up winning $36 bucks at the casino.... woohoo!

Drove on to Sioux Falls along I90 to visit a friend from grad school who is the 6 & 10pm anchor on KSFY. While the eastern half of SD is slightly uninteresting, it is home to The Corn Palace -- the advertising for which spans dozens of billboards. As it turns out, this "free" attraction is really just a big gym with corn stapled to the outside in very interesting patterns. It was actually pretty interesting and gets re-done every year.

Drove into the Badlands after that and saw some of the most amazing rock/sand formations I have ever seen. They reminded me of the Grand Canyon on a much smaller scale, but you come upon them so quickly, they really take your breath away. The entire western half of SD is full of interesting sites, including Mount Rushmore (best seen at night when it is the only thing lit up for miles) and the Buffalo National Grasslands. Oh, of course I had to stop at Wall Drug and see the jackalopes :-)

Drove across Wyoming on backroads.... up thru the Bighorn Mountains and down the other side.... eventually hooking up with I80. If you get off the interstates in Wyoming, it is very pretty (i missed Yellowstone as it was too far away), but the view from the major roads tends to look like the land has been strip-mined. Of course, no trip across this great land would be complete without a stop at the worlds largest gas station: Little America. They used to have penguins in this western WY stop, but -- go figure -- they all died.

Out of Wyoming, I headed into Salt Lake City across the Salt Flats which are perhaps the weirdest place on the planet. Miles and miles of flat, white ground -- out here you can literaly see for a hundred miles at a time (unlike the east where its hard to see more than about 20), so the sense that you have been abandonded on some other planet is very real. I managed to get the Saab up to about 45mph on the Bonneville Salf Flats on the border with Nevada (where all of the land spped records are set), and in the process have probably destroyed my car's underbelly, but it was well worth the rush.

After a brief stay at the beautiful Flamingo Hilton in Reno (where I won another 60 bucks...), I got into San Fran on Monday. Have been spending the days here with my nephew who is about 7 mos old, and cute as hell. The wierdest part was walking down a street in San Fran today and literally running into Kate Burke (ex- SIG) while she was about to get her hair cut! Totally bizarre!

So I am here for a few days of relaxing and then next week I am back on the road headed East along old US 50... who the hell knows where I'll be stopping, with the exception of Champaign Urbana to see some very good friends.

Hope all of you are well... will write again soon....

rich