November 4, 2022 — 8 AM

A placeholder here as I have a lot to post about the past two days but am going to drive more this morning. Hopefully I will get to updating later today and over the weekend.

Yesterday among the places I visited were Waldo, Paradise and Plainville -- names of towns that are just too funny. I also visited a couple of golf courses and the geodetic center of North America.

I spent last night at the Plainville Lake Park. I was the only person there which is not my favorite thing to do. The temperature dropped from 74 degrees to 34 degrees; that made getting out of my rack rather invigorating this morning. I've fired up Hi Ho Silver and she is keeping me warm now.

In recognition of my emotional state, I keep questioning the "wisdom" of returning to Chickasha for the lighting of the leg lamp tomorrow night. I'm going, but it means I've doubled back 400 -- maybe 500 -- miles. But what else am I going to do? At this point it is going to be cold in South Dakota whenever I get there I figure.

Funny how I have come to really appreciate the two sides of doing this alone. No one would want to be out here with me as I stop and turnaround to take photos. Or I aim to go to towns with names that entertain me. But at the same time, it would be meaningful to share these experiences -- including making decisions on where to go.

But we are where we are supposed to be, right? All my previous actions led me to this point.

Dawn is breaking here at the Alta convenience store in Plainville. The high school (the Fighting Cardinals) had a playoff game last night that seemed to be the talk of the town. We big city folk think we are all refined and all -- something appealing about a small town rallying around its high school sports teams.

Off to Protection, Kansas. Or maybe it's in Oklahoma. Either way I'm headed there.