This morning, when there was one woman (me) in one car (a Toyota Corolla) going along 3 streets in 5 minutes on my way to teach a class, I heard about these 3 guys who are in a car traveling this week to all 48 states in the continental U.S. They're not traveling through each state, but are at least crossing borders to say they've been in each one.

One of the guys, Joshua Keeler, was being interviewed on the radio about the trip. Originally, years ago, this was going to be his father's trip. His dad, James, had mapped out the journey, but James' mother's death kept him from going. Joshua got hold of the maps and corralled his two friends Joey Stocking and Adam Gatherum to go along with him on this journey they are calling, "The Great American Road Trip." There is an attempt to break the Guinness record for a similar trip, although, Guinness no longer keeps such records for road safety sake.

This is the final installment of the 20-part Chinese Buffet series that chronicled the travels of an American woman visiting China for the first time.


Before I begin this story, let me clarify that the airline I write about in this post is Air China, and NOT China Airlines, which has been in the news this week for its frightening runway explosion. However, it should be noted that Air China has received its own share of bad press in recent weeks too.

I had read some of that unsettling news just days before I boarded an Air China flight to Beijing in early July. I was a little leery, but too eager about my trip to lose any sleep over it.

The flight to China on CA982 was fine -- once we got off the ground. We were held on the runway at JFK for almost an hour before taking-off, but I blame that on the airport and not the airline.

Three weeks later, I took another Air China flight to leave the country, and this time, it was the airline's fault that we did not depart on time.

Catherine's post on the not-so-well-known geographical center of the United States got me thinking: there's something fun and intriguing about visiting, say, the northernmost point in a country, or perhaps driving eastward until you can drive no further -- if only so that you can say, "There's no one further east than me," unless there's someone else standing next to you. If so you'll have to say, "There's no one further east than me...and this other person." But somehow that's not quite as romantic. Unless it's a girl and you're a guy and there's a bit of chemistry going on. Anyway. Here we go:

All 50 states:

• Northernmost: Point Barrow, Alaska -- A jumping point for many Arctic expeditions.
  
• Southernmost: Ka Lae, Hawaii -- One of Hawaii's most popular fishing spots.
  
• Easternmost: West Quoddy Head, Maine -- Home to the famous West Quoddy Head Lighthouse (pictured).
  
• Westernmost: Adak, Alaska -- Only 316 people call Adak home.
  
• Center: approximately (20 mi) north of Belle Fourche, South Dakota.
  

48 Contiguous:

• Northernmost: Northwest Angle, Minnesota -- Known simply as "The Angle" to tourists.
  
• Southernmost: Key West, Florida -- Did you know that David Robinson (of NBA fame) was born there?
  
• Easternmost: West Quoddy Head, Maine -- The only spot to be extreme twice.
  
• Westernmost: Ozette, Washington -- Sorry, Ozette, but I've got nothing to say about you.
  
• Center: approximately 6 km (4 mi) west of Lebanon, Kansas.

P.S. This is my 500th post with Gadling. Woo!

If you're planning the requisite road trip across the U.S. (my family took ours in a minivan 17 years ago), add one more stop on your tour of Americana: the geographical center of the country.

Eight miles south north of Belle Fourche, South Dakota is a red-tipped fence post marking the smack-dab middle of the U.S. The spot was dedicated in 1959 (when Hawaii became a state -- if you thought the center was somewhere in Nebraska, you forgot to include Hawaii and Alaska).

Currently, the marker is inaccessible, as it's located on private property in the middle of a barbed-wired pasture. Town leaders raised enough money to move the official center into town, and plan to place a 21-by-40 foot compass rose monument there. Belle Fourche is already considered the center of the nation city, so moving the geographical center shouldn't be cheating ... too much.

Happy Friday the 13th all! Time for a little weekly deja vu... Nothing to be scared or panicked about, just relax and review.

5. Dying to Travel:
If avian flu and pandemic disease worry you dare not look at this plug on the interactive risk maps based off the Maplecroft Avian Influenza Risk Index. They might just reveal that avian flu is closer to you than you think. Or you could just be paranoid.

4. Miracle Camping Tub:
Not going to lie - I want one of these. While trying to help his own friend's overcome some of their camping woes like showering and staying clean, he points us to a spectacular $6,000 gear piece called the Dutchtub and helps all and anyone out that has $6,000 bucks to spend on the equipment. Until that day arrives for me, bird baths it is!

3. Hidden Gems: Crazy Horse:
The Crazy Horse Memorial found in South Dakota's Black Hills isn't the most hidden of gems and I'm sure you may have heard of it at some point in your life, but have you been? If your answer is no then my question is what on Earth are you waiting for? Check out this Native American great in this Hidden Gems review.

2. Slum Tourism:
Some of us avoid slums by all means while others are out with video cam in tow. Could touring someone's poverty stricken life be the latest in tourist trends or a insensitive means of dropping in and getting out when things get too real, too terrible, and too poor? Check out the story Erik directs us to and see what side of the picket-fence you're on.

1. French Say NON! to Smoking in Public Places:
I think this one says it all! Cheers to good health prevailing! But, oh, yes, there is that part of French culture you have to worry about as Erik mentions in his blurb, that one must think about and hope isn't necessarily ruined by the no smoking in public places rule. I think it's marvelous and the French, they'll be okay.

Once departing Keystone, SD me and my travel pal found ourselves in Rapid City searching for something to do and more so something to eat. I stopped at a Best Western to see what recommendations their front desk staff had and they pointed out Deadwood, but it was in the opposite direction and I'm not a big gambler. I moved onto my second favorite subject: FOOD. "Where's the best place to grab some lunch in town?" I asked. Without batting his eyes the hefty guy behind the counter whipped out a map and directed me to Sanford's Grub & Pub. So Sanford's it was!

We arrived right as lunch was beginning and in good time too. The parking lot was empty when we pulled up, but it only took minutes from the time we were seated to see the big lunch crowd pouring in. I could keep this real simple, short and sweet and just tell you that at Sanford's - everything is good. That the service is good, the atmosphere is awesome, prices are mid-range and the food is fantastic, but that would keep me from babbling about everything else that's finger-lickin' cool about the place. Let's start with my very first impression of the spot. Cluttered and decorated from ceiling to floor practically, the place certainly isn't lacking character. There are license plates, parking meters, neon signs aglow and thing-a-ma-jigs everywhere. In the front near the bar you can take a seat in the palm of a hand as the entire area has seats that are hands or you can head further inside for something slightly traditional. (Stools and chairs.) I didn't count to check for accuracy, but I'm told there are 300 some TV's in the building with various programming to watch should it tickle your fancy. I didn't watch TV and I didn't watch my appetite - I watched my food.

Start with an appetizer if you're super hungry. We ordered fried stuffed jalepeños with cream cheese and they were AMAZING! My friends said they were some of the best he had ever eaten and I agree, though I'd never had them before. I went on to order the Gas Kap sandwich which was a chicken breast cooked in cajun spices topped with strips of sirloin and a side of slaw. D-LICIOUS. I think you guys understand where I'm going here. Head to Sandford's when in Rapid City. They're off the meter!

Sanford's Grub & Pub is located at 306 7th Street, Rapid City, SD 57701. Ph. 605.721.1463

Having recently purchased a small Lakota dictionary for beginner's I thought I'd put it to use here on Gadling. Lakota won't be a language you run around using on a daily basis even with the majority of speakers in the U.S. For the following word I please note the letter 'n' should be more like a 'n' with a 'j' hanging from the second line of the 'n'. I don't have the correct character key, but should you really try pronouncing this one, just beware of the way it appears here and how it should actually appear.

Today's word is a Lakota word used in North America:

wawíhangya - destroyer

Lakota is spoken in the U.S. in areas which include North Dakota, South Dakota, parts of Nebraska, Minnesota, and Montana. It is also spoken by a few people in Canada and has a total range of 8,000-9,000 speakers in all of North America. Lakota is the largest of the three languages of the Sioux, of the Siouan family as noted in Wikipedia. Head over to their page for a quick read on lingo background info. One last interesting fact is that the language represents one of the largest Native American speech communities left in the United States.

Learning Lakota online will be a bit more challenging than Spanish, but can be done to a certain point. There is a Lakotiya Yahoo group which holds live online classes. You must be a member, but I believe registration is free and from there you can start learning pronunciation and grammar. The Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Center has a decent website which includes quotes form the elders, common terms & phrases (with audio), and a grammar guide. Lakhota.org offers off-line language products like this Speak Lakota Level 2 Textbook which are said to be the finest according to the site. If you're in the northern plains area of the U.S. try seeking out a native speaker for some lessons, otherwise you can pick up this Everyday Lakota for beginner's dictionary at the Crazy Horse Memorial or on Amazon.

In my lifetime there are many places I have gone and few that made me want to repeat visits. You see, my pal and I headed out a couple days ago expecting to be blown away by one of America's most astonishing memorial's and mountain carvings - Mount Rushmore. However, there is an uncompleted memorial 17 miles down the road that flipped our lids, turned our hearts inside out and begged us to revisit sometime again in the future. That memorial is known as Crazy Horse and will be the world's largest mountain carving upon completion. However, as an unfinished memorial resting in South Dakota's Black Hills and a hefty admission fee ($10 an adult or $24 per car load) one has to wonder what makes it so spectacular, breathtaking, and worth our attention? Well, with all great memorials there is usually a monumental story behind the piece and THAT is what makes Crazy Horse so extraordinary.


From the exterior the Welcome Center doesn't look like much, but you can see the face of Crazy Horse up the hill in the distance. Once inside the story of the great Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Indian leader is revealed along with the story of a man and sculptor known as Korczak Ziolkowski that took up the challenge of the mountain carving.

Now you must forgive me for I'm not a historian, but from the orientation I became aware of the life of Crazy Horse and will provide you with what I now know. Crazy Horse was born in the Black Hills of South Dakota sometime in the 1840's and died on September 6, 1877 at Fort Robinson, Nebraska. He was standing there under a flag of truce when he was stabbed in the back by an American soldier. His death was a major upset and he was recognized by the Lakota tribe as a great leader, warrior and defended his people and their way of life as best he could.

No one likes writing restaurant rants including myself, but when I encounter very bad service it then becomes my obligation to all potential travelers to make such piss poor service known. Sigh. Before I begin with my rant let me set up the scene in Keystone, SD around this time of year.

For starters it's off-season in Keystone and what may be a bustling little place right outside of Mount Rushmore in summertime it feels quiet and deserted for fall and even more so for winter. Here and there a few businesses have closed up operation already and will reopen later next year and those that have yet to close either offer discounted rates on goods, limited goods or shorten business hours. All of which makes perfect sense if there aren't any tourists around to generate a buck. Knowing this and that we were traveling in the area at such a point in the season my companion and I planned to eat dinner as early as we possibly could and remained aware and flexible towards business operation in town. However, business operation and hospitality/service are not entirely one of the same. Here's my spill:

The first evening we found ourselves at Big Time Pizza it was about 8:30 PM. We stepped in to what appeared to be a humble, cozy kind of family-owned spot that claimed to make all other pizzas jealous. Having had pizza two nights before, we were really interested in just munching on a salad or a sub. On the menu you'll find half a page listing a variety of subs and half with different pizza selections. On the back there were roughly three salads listed. I had decided on the chef salad and my pal was going for the 6 inch veggie sub. Our server was an older woman (also part-owner) who peered over her glasses and smiled as she made everything we requested sound like an inconvenience. When I requested a slice of lemon for my water she made it sound as if I were in luck that they just so happen to have sliced one. Huh? She said no one had ordered salad in weeks and she would have to see if they had everything needed to make the chef salad. She returned and reported that the lettuce they had wasn't the normal iceberg type or spinach kind, but it was still good and good for me. I asked if they could kindly serve the salad without the green pepper or the onions and she said told me they came on the side and that I could take it off. (I asked assuming their salads were freshly made as they were and not pre-packaged like a McDonald's salad.) Thankfully she gave me a napkin so when my salad arrived I could pick everything I did not want off and place it on the napkin. When my friend put in his sub order she had little to say other than there was only one chef in the back and that she would have to see if he could make the sub. Um, fair enough I suppose. Anyhow, our food arrived and we gobbled it down. Having realized how delicious his veggie sub was my friend politely ordered a second serving. Our server as nice as can be told us the chef couldn't without even consulting him. He was only making pizza. While I thought all of what we experienced strange I kept telling myself we were travelers at the mercy of the off-season business blues. We paid our bill and left.

However, my poor service story continues.

It's safe to say I don't really know diddly-squat about South Dakota and I'm not going to waste my time or your time trying to get your tourist dollars into the marvelous state. I don't get paid for that. Thankfully someone out there does care enough about the state and all its fascinating attractions to do a photo essay on the land. This month at Go World Travel the online magazine features almost all of South Dakota's note-worthy sights in a very well-done piece by Sheri L. Thompson. Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, the Badlands, the Mammoth Site, Needles Highway, Black Hills National Forest, Wall Drug, and Four Mile Old West Town are all there.

After exploring the photo essay and text I learned a lot more about the area and knew a lot more than I actually gave myself credit for. I wouldn't mind making a quick jaunt through the area this fall though it'll probably be very cold. If South Dakota is on your radar visit this Go World Travel piece and the tourism site to start planning your trip now!