write this from a farm in Iowa. This is after a week of tear-assing across Wyoming and South Dakota -- our motto: never again -- and after a week spent in Montana, where I called a friend from a payphone surrounded by deer and woke up one morning with snow covering my tent. Shh. Don't tell Montana it's June. The point is that in my absence, something dark and mysterious happened to my website, something like it stopped working. So patience. We're trying to figure this thing out. There's more stories about Alaska on the way -- the ferry! the gray and driving rain! -- plus updates about buffalo and prairie grass. And if you're good: The World's Only Corn Palace!