July 6

This is being written 4 days later. The first day of the trip I was late getting started by about 8 minutes; I departed Morgantown at 6:08 AM, not knowing exactly how far I would get across the country toward my ultimate goal - Big Sky country via the Wind River Range, The Tetons, and Yellowstone. I used Maggie sporadically (our Magellan GPS system); she routed me through Ohio but west on Rte 70; therefore over her protests I headed west on 76 just north of Pittsburgh, heading toward I-80. I wish I could say that Ohio and Indiana and Illinois were great thrills, but it was standard interstate driving, Prius style. The biggest problem with driving the Prius is that it can go so far on a tank of gas you are tempted to go the whole way between gas station stops. That gets close to 500 miles (or more on a couple of my tanks), so it's not advisable. I was very glad to have Bill Bryson and Steven Leavitt as traveling companions that day, along with a little Alanis Morisette and some miscellaneous other tunes. By 10 that night, I had passed Des Moines Iowa and was heading toward Council Bluffs. There was a state park not far off the interstate, but I was so excited to get going early in the morning the idea of pitching and de-pitching the tent had less appeal than usual. Having driven about 975 miles, I was ready for bed. Therefore I found a cheap ($39) hotel which was actually not bad, and slept a whopping 6 hours, with only fitful sleep after 5 AM. I was raring to go!