Here we are in North Platte, Nebraska--a small burg that so far seems to consist of motels and fast food places, and a Wal-Mart. We haven't driven all the way up North Jeffers St, so maybe the real town hapens there. At any rate, we left Tucson at 3pm on Tuesday, after the movers packed everything into the moving van and we cleaned the house as much as possible. It felt like it took a lot longer than it did to drive to Las Cruces, NM, and once we got there we did nothing but eat at Applebee's and go to sleep. The next day we drove up I-25 to Las Vegas, NM, where we stayed in the "historic Plaza Hotel," a great old Western relic, complete with someone playing a honkytonk piano badly in the lobby. We walked around the Old Town until the rains came, ate in the hotel restaurant where the food was great (even though they'd run out of tomatoes and therefore had no marinara sauce)! Yesterday we continued up I-25 to Colorado Springs, CO. At first drive-through, it looked pretty shabby. But later we drove down to the Old Town district for a fabulous Greek dinner at Jake & Telly's and then wandered around window shopping since everything closed at 7pm, except for a Tibetan import store where we bought two small wooden sculptures, one of a person sitting and thinking, and the other of the Weeping Buddha. Today we finally got off I-25 in Denver and onto 76 which took us to I-80, where we will spend the next couple of days crossing through Nebraska into Iowa and onto Illinois and Ohio. I think somewhere in Ohio we'll lose I-80 and finish the trip into NY on I-90.

During all this time, Casey has been a very good dog ("Good dog? Good dog? Why is it never great dog?!?"--a cartoon we used to have hanging on our refrigerator) except for the barking problem when left alone in the room while we go for dinner. But tonight we got him a big rawhide bone and some "Calming Support" for dogs at Wal-Mart, and when we came back from dinner he was remarkably silent! Now he's flaked out in his iron cage (that we had to get after he nosed his way out of the pop-up "tent"-like one we'd first gotten), snoring loudly. In Las Vegas, NM, he actually managed to break out of the iron cage somehow--the whole side with the door in it fell in. We have no idea how he did it. He hasn't done it since. Hopefully the bone and happy pills will do the trick from now on. During the day, he perches himself up on top of James's guitars and our big suitcases in the back of the truck so he can lie with his nose through the communicating window into the cab and feel like he's a part of the action. Most of the time he sleeps. And of course he charms everyone he meets whenever we stop for a potty break.

This morning James and I had a little tiff, triggered by our mutually incompatible anxiety patterns: when he gets anxious, he hurries faster and faster, sure that we'll be LATE; when I get anxious, I become extra methodical so that I don't forget anything. I feel rushed by James's hurrying, and James feels impeded by my slow methodicalism. Which makes him hurry more, which makes me slow down more so I don't forget anything... After getting ticked at each other, we spent a Quiet Day on the road for about 5 hours. Casey slept. Then we both got over ourselves and had a fine evening at Wal-Mart, dinner at Perkins, and now on-line for the first time since Monday. Tomorrow we're looking forward to a trip to the Cody Trading Post (North Platte is the home of Buffalo Bill Cody) before returning to I-80 and heading for Iowa. Casey will once again assume his precarious position on The Ledge, and hopefully James and I will get through the morning routine without triggering each other's anxieties and enjoy the Very Flat Heartland of the USA.