I've covered ~1,200 miles in the last 3 days, but I am now about half way across the USA (at least I'm on the fold in my map). I can now slow down a bit again and take some more time to look around.

Mind you, the journey had its moments:

• there was some nice wooded, twisty bits through the tail of the Appalachians;
• I crossed the Mississippi with hair on the back of my neck standing up;
• had my first experience with insanely straight, apparently endless roads. The picture for this blog entry is taken through the front window screen of the car - the view through the rear window was the same!

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to stop and enjoy the town of kickapoo.

I've booked myself into a Holiday Inn Express and, joy of joys, it has a guest laundry. I remember when Mum first bought a front loading washing machine, and we all sat around it saying "so what's it doing now?" I feel the same again - not having to wash my clothes in the room hand basin. Ahhh!

The news here is all about hurricane Irene. It feels strange having just visited these places (New York, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina) to see them under such peril. I hope my friends around there get through this OK.

I've also bought myself a book on Route 66 to cover the next few days of my journey. I'll have a good read up on it before I go on. In the meantime, the guide books main comment on Oklahoma City seems to be either about the bomb (back in 1995) and the busy stockyards. Apparently the beef here is very good, so maybe I'll treat myself to a steak tonight.