Rolling along across the country

Present circumstances are not conducive to deep blog thoughts. The bookapalooza is in the midst of a l-o-n-g several day sprint from Alabama to New Mexico. Our days consist of barreling down I-40, dodging semi-trucks.

One observation: yesterday we woke up on the east side of Arkansas near Memphis, TN. By midday we were in a Taco Bell on the west edge of the same state -- and suddenly realized we'd made a big cultural transition. We're in the West again. I don't have evidence to back this up, just feelings. But for the last two months, since leaving St. Paul, Minnesota, we've been in places where society and history looked to the Atlantic seaboard. Once again, we're pushing on now into the western frontier; it's another world. The sky, even if clouded, is getting wider.

How do we know where to stop, eat, even sleep? We're using an iPhone app called iExit that tells us what's coming along in the more featureless areas.

iExit can't guarantee there is anyplace we want to be, and it catches nowhere near all the options, but it helps.