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A fascinating post — thanks for that. You write:

> If you ever get a chance drive across America. Stop and talk to people. In the small towns go to the hardware store. the owner is usually a Pubbie. In cities go to the well tended suburbs. You will be surprised just how diverse the party is.

(big grin!) Your post brings back wonderful memories for me.

My very first real jop put me in a pickup truck in the middle of North America with an Amex Card and instructions to drive hither and yon for weeks on end on behalf of a Grain Company.

I fell in love with America as a Nation ‘round about then.

I know exactly what you mean about the middle part of America, and I love it. When you’re 20-something and unattached with no obligations to speak of, there is no better job than what I had.

As a result I saw most of your lower 48 states, and I think I found Obama’s missing states somewhere between Texas and Idaho... it’s such a big country you could easily have 57 states and not know where you misplaced 7 of them.

Back then, Vancouver to Los Angeles CA was not a long trip, just over a day. Winnipeg to Culbertson MT via Warren MN, Fargo ND and Minot ND was a leisurely drive of a day-and-a-half, with lots of time to take the trip in two stages, with business to be done in each location.

Doing that pace now, at my age, would kill me stone dead.

I grew up in farm/ranch country. I started very early bumming from job to job all over the midwest and west. Anything that required a weak mind and a strong back. Harvest from Texas to the Dakotas, miles and miles of fencing, caretaking in the middle of nowhere, construction and sometimes destruction. I worked with the people, played with them, drank with them, fought with them, went to Church with them and to their house for Sunday dinner and to meet their daughter or niece or whatever. Sometimes I still catch myself thinking with "thees" and "thous"

Wonderful times.