5353 Miles in 12 Days

Folks, that's an average of 446 miles per day. Every day. For 12 days. That's about the distance from New York City to Cleveland.

Every trip is a learning experience. Here's some things I learned.

1. When you find a population of your study organism, sample it. Do not go 5 miles down the road. Do not eat a sandwich first. Stop the car. Get out. Sample the population. Failure to do so will ensure: A) The population down the road evaporates before you get there. B) You are unable to re-locate the population when you come back, and C) A pack of rabid coyotes, a DNR worker, or a livid land owner will be standing guard when you return.
   
2. I don't get Texas. At all. And I'm done trying.
   
3. The best Motel 6 ever is located in Oklahoma City.
4. Colorado has beautiful horses.
   
5. If someone is behaving badly on the roadway, invariably they are sporting California plates.
6. Kansas City, my behind. The best smelling BBQ is found in Moriarty, NM. Jake agrees.
   
7. Both Dennys and IHOP put milk in their pancakes.
8. The average breakfast out costs $12, a price I consider outrageous for eggs and a few slices of bacon and a pancake containing milk.
9. The cascading flight pattern of desert hares works against them in a showdown with a car.
10. Jake is a pretty damn good field assistant.
11. Road signage in the Navajo Nation leaves a lot to be desired.
12. I owe Rich Spellenberg a bottle of scotch.
13. It's always a relief when, having the evidence to resolve a long standing feud, you prove the person right who has been helping you.
14. Everyone should do the drive from Grand Junction to Durango. And the Beartooth Highway. And the ring of Kerry.
    
15. Oklahoma could use a lesson or two regarding the appropriate warning distance for upcoming road construction. Seriously. Like before more people die.
16. Coca Cola always tastes better ice-chest cold and in a glass bottle.
17. I am intoxicated by the freedom of the open road and answering to no one, which is to say, I have grown fond of traveling alone. Quite fond.
18. Truck stops are pretty safe places if you have to sleep in your car.
    
19. I have people who care about me enough to check on me every single day. And who those people are surprised me.
    
20. I can sleep in a car for two weeks without wanting to take someone's head off.