not just random

It’s that place somewhere in South Dakota. It’s where you land, preferrably after dark, when gas is running low and your first snow storm of the year is showing you a thing or two about life, applied physics and the quality of your preparations.

You find a hotel, any hotel, not believing your luck when they provide free Intenet access and happily accept just about any price they might name for the room. There’s a parking spot right in front of the room, no neglectable advantage, not really, not if the wind is going so strongly that your car is shaking and just attempting to open your car door, makes you feel weak - really weak. You laugh out loud. That helps for an instant, but then you knock it off - the snow flying in your face makes it tough. From the TV you learn that, considering the wind chill, you are dealing with 18 degrees fahrenheit. Good that you didn’t know that earlier.

Later on the hunger drives you out and to a restaurant/bar/whatever right across the street. The food is bad, naturally, just to suit the occasion and the stay accordingly short.

So there you are. Kadoka, SD. Your mountain bikes are inside, dripping wet but quite clean. The road atlas, likewise rescued from the car, bravely offering alternate routes and the TV displaying strings of warnings. Some place to be stuck, when you have some fifteen hundred miles left to go. Then - for a moment you think the situation looks bleak. That’s when the power shuts off. Not for long, just long enough that you realize that we have not realized the full potential of the situation quite yet.

Watching the clerks become friendlier and more enthused as each box we drag inside makes their smiles a little more honest clearly reveals the obvious: We are moving and there is no turning back. They wish us good luck, but we hardly hear them; we know we are lucky already. Little they say could change our excitement a whole lot. Wrapped up in the future that’s ahead, the things to do, the magic to behold. Life is grand. Thanks UPS, we appreciate your service, no matter how much your driver complains and aches. Nonetheless, we have resolved to never move like this again. The next time, whenever that may be, will likely involve a serious moving truck or two.

You know you have been at the same place for too long, if you find yourself repeatedly trying to flip that light switch by the entrance - disregarding that the lamp was given away days ago.