Day 5 and 1rst half of Day 6

Wyoming: Despite my humor at Wyoming's expense, it is much prettier than I remembered as a child. Harsh winds make a harsh land. Lovely to see all of the windmill's. All kinds of windmills. All over the place. Lots and lots of windmills. And farms. And trucks. But mostly lots of rocks, piles of rocks and grass. I will say this for Wyoming though....I could get NPR EVERYWHERE crystal clear.

Idaho: Eastern Idaho is kinda blechier than I remembered. Western Idaho is more barren than I remembered but still absolutely lush farm country.

Utah: Say what you want about Mormons, if I wanna terraform a planet some day I'm hiring them. I've been in many western states, and Utah was greener and flusher than other places. They really did change that land. For the better in my opinion.

Oh, and I saw first bill board I'd ever seen for an adult club in Salt Lake at the edge of the state. Looks like the anti pornography campaign is having a limited effect.

Oregon: Most of it I saw in the dark. Lots of mountains. LOTS of mountains. Self serve gasoline exists only in Indian tribal areas. That's right. If you want you gambling fix or to fill your own gas tank go to the nearest reservation.

I don't need to see their library, because there is a veritable shrine to the God of Books in the middle of the city. HOLY @#$@#$$# COW! To sustain a book store of this size, the people of Portland must be among the most literate on the Earth, and you can tell, because the city WORKS. It is clean. It has a street car. It is having budget problems like everyone else, but you can sense the lack of corruption and cronyism that exists in Atlanta and even to a lesser degree that I could sense in Boulder. Boulder was very nice but you could ...feel...the occasional little petty projects here and there. Portland has homeless but they treat them well.

After reading the paper and how the police are treating the Occupy Portland folks as compared to other cities, it is OBVIOUS the people here care about others. It isn't perfect. There are still lots of homeless people but they are not shunned or herded or shamed away.

Corporations are here like everywhere else but they are TAMED and kept in their proper place. The signs are not garish and are blended in to the rest of their architecture. Religion is here but it is also TAMED and kept in its proper place. The christian who attempted to say he would pray for me was both respectful and had a tinge of not wanting to offend. I'm a Christian and while one should never be offended for one's belief's one should be ashamed at the reputation most Christians set...and here they have to because of the percentage of athiests and 'no religion' ists. Blatant abuse of society in the name of "God" is not tolerated here as it is in Atlanta.

Even hate radio was 'tame.' In the most rural parts of the state, the guy spent 5 minutes talking about the need for rational thinking courses and to be polite. Same message that is everywhere in the country about 'change agents' etc (though he obviously was one himself but whatever.)

And it has a streetcar!

The main problem I have now is that this week has been totally exhausting. I may have a solid lead, maybe even a job on day 1 upon return if an interview by phone goes well Monday....but I may not have the energy to return in 3 days. We'll see.

Regardless, I'm still pushing on to Seattle tomorrow.

I hope to have the energy to go out and mingle tonight.