Today was an extraordinarily weird day - rain, clouds, wind, mud, cold, tumbleweed. I began the day at Toadstool Geologic Park as rain fell intermittently and it was so cold that I wished I had brought gloves with me on this trip.

On the ‘gravel’ road near Toadstool, I drove through several very muddy spots were deceptively treacherous. Shortly thereafter, my car developed nasty vibration at highway speeds once I returned to the pavement. Fearing the worse, I detoured back to Chadron and stopped at a tire repair shop downtown. The very nice woman behind the counter told me not to worry - thick mud had likely stuck to the wheels and taken them out of balance. She directed me to a self-service car wash where I liberally sprayed high-pressure water at the inside of the wheels.

It worked. The vibration went away, no expensive repair required.

After my carwash visit, a literal ‘herd’ of dozens of tumbleweed rushed across the highway due to the high winds, hitting cars but amounting to little more than a peculiar annoyance.

The Red Shirt Overlook on the southern edge of Badlands National Park isn’t near much of anything but it is a really fantastic view. The only problem was that the wind was blowing so hard that I had trouble standing up and felt a bit worried about getting anywhere close to the edge of the abyss.

More 16:9 images for your viewing pleasure…

Post title: Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood