So close I can smell it....

Well the last two days have been pretty exhausting. From Rapid City I had 1500 miles to get back home to Toronto, as of this evening I have about 350 miles left. I started doing the math on if I kept going what time would I get in, when it came back around 11pm, and I have been going since 7am, I thought I would stop. Also I was given a sign... ok I saw a sign: Motel 6 $35.99. Matthew's advice was always if you can find a hotel for $20 more than camping, don't even hesitate.... shower, bed, internet, dry your tent out.... priceless....

I can put up with the heat, the rain, the cold, but the one thing that absolutely exhausts me is the wind. I have spent the last two days on the edge of a big storm and have been battling a crosswind constantly. It is like sitting in a chair and having someone trying to shove you off it, hour, after hour, after hour.... so I am extremely grateful for a hotel tonight.

Matthew and I averaged about an hour to pack up in the mornings, this morning I did it in land speed record time of about 30 minutes. Lying in my tent I had heard the rain in the middle of the night, but when at 6am the wind started howling, I knew I was in trouble. Apparently the threat of getting soaked while packing up your stuff is quite the motivator!!!

So yesterday I left South Dakota, I have been through Omaha, Iowa, Indiana, and am now in Michigan, not bad for two days!! The American Midwest is like what I thought the Canadian prairies would be. A multicolored patchwork quilt of vegetation. Dawn will be happy to know that a great deal of states practice diversified farming, instead of field after field of the same thing. Some fields even had more than one type of crop...

So sadly no picture for today, partly because the weather was so crappy, and the view was basically flat. I was partly hoping to get back to the "Welcome to Toronto" sign, but stopped short. Give or take a day getting back is no big deal, and there is no point in trashing myself to do it...

So tomorrow I will be back home, or at least in my home town. Assuming of course they let my British butt back in the country.