Dispatch #18: The Coteau, again

Well, I'm back, back in the land of real Diet Coke, trustworthy tap water, predictable public restrooms, and English as the most common first language, and it's good to be home.

My final flight left Tokyo around sunset yesterday evening and our plane proceeded to chase the sun across the Pacific and North America. We caught up with the sunshine (and returned to afternoon/early evening), somewhere over the Rockies. About 9 or 10 hours into the flight, I opened my window and confronted what looked like a familiar sight and, upon checking my flight tracker, I confirmed that it was, indeed, the Dakotas. The sky was perfectly clear and after a few minutes of watching the prairie glide by, I identified Aberdeen in the distance (with a little help from the flight tracker).

Almost immediately, I noticed the speckled effect that is created by the numerous lakes of the northeast part of the state. I don't think I've ever viewed the state from that high before and, as it turns out, the coteau is pretty easy to identify. I kept the window open long enough to spot, without help from the flight tracker, the place where Big Stone Lake and Lake Traverse form the the divot in the border between South Dakota and Minnesota. At that point, I returned to my reading.

I took somewhere close to 2000 photos while I was in Asia and I've also offered to host my traveling companion's photos on my Flickr site. So, if you're interested in seeing what I've been up to, check in there over the next few days. My photos should all be up in the next few hours, and I'll work on organizing them and adding my friends' photos in the next few days. If you don't have the address of my Flickr homepage, email me and I'll send it to you.