Current location:	Livingston, MT
Current mood:	restless

Day 3 (actually Day 4, but data from Day 3)
Day 3/4, 00:00 a.m.
Once in each state, I’ve gotten a thumbs-up, peace sign, or positive comment regarding my “Defoliate Bush” bumper sticker. And they’ve all been from folks driving local vehicles (state plates). I gotta admit that I’m surprised, seeing as how I’m in middle America and there are, y’know, assumptions. Red states vs. blue states and all that. Which I guess is, as they say, a bit of a myth.

Disturbing scene of the day . . .
Old Campground Host Guy: “And yup, ya saw we got showers. Fifty cents’ll get ya two and a half minutes. Not long for a shower, won’t have no time ta play w’ your pud in thar. You don’ play w’ your pud inna shower, do ya?”
Me: “Heh. Uh. I’m afraid that’s personal information. Thanks, seeya!”

Otherwise, I’ve learned that Montana, like most continental divide states, is McBoring on the eastern half, and mind-blowingly gorgeous on the western half. It’s kinda funny how it creeps up on you. It goes from blah to “huh, it’s ugly, but interesting,” to a strange sense of impressive bigness, things seeming more rugged and sweeping, and then you top a rise and see this amazing river valley spread out below you with bluffs and valleys and ridges and you’re like “hot damn! Gorgeous!”

Sitting in my hotel room, looking out at the big mountains, stopping throughout the day to type on this or that . . . I could rapidly fall in love with this lifestyle. Not necessarily the nomadic one, but the “make my own schedule” one. The goal, I thought, was always to find gainful employment. But the closer I get to Portland, indeed the closer I got to leaving MN in the first place, the more I cherished the idea of making my own schedule. Freelance can of course accomplish that, but can I make enough to live on? I refuse to be scraping for rent and groceries ever again. So that may mean a part-time gig (REI? Or Starbucks, they offer health insurance), but those places don’t give you a lot of freedom over when you can and can’t work. So that would mean short-term freedom, e.g. doing what I want, when I want, each day, but not long-term, e.g. needing to work certain weekends, being unable to travel at will. I have some ideas on starting a new business once I hit Portland, but that may take capital. Of course, this freedom fascination might fade, as it has in the past, once reality sets in and the bills are due. But if it doesn’t, if I can make it work as my own boss . . . damn, that would be pretty great.

I now bequeath unto you, pictures!

The North Dakota badlands
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17757139@N00/224466637/

My cozy little state forest campsite
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17757139@N00/224466729/

Big ol’ cloud bank moving in
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17757139@N00/224466698/

Holy shit! It’s a mushroom cloud, but pretty. Did mother nature nuke Bismark after I left?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17757139@N00/224466677/

In their natural physiologies (not farm-raised and bred for bulk), wild turkeys are actually pretty cool and mobile. Or are these some kind of roadrunner? They sure look like turkeys. And when they run, they look like dinosaurs. Rar!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17757139@N00/224466940/

Oops
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17757139@N00/224466858/

Gah!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17757139@N00/224467083/

(damn sharks, following me every damn where. I bet some adapted when the see drained out, and are just lying under the dirt and pavement, waiting to eat me and my whole car)

Pointing west. Sweet! There’s hope for my love-life yet.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17757139@N00/224467155/