North Dakota last week. Took my allergies with me to temperatures ranging from a sunny 75 to a sleeting 43. Wasn't at my best - coughing and wheezing ... and the audience was sooooo quiet, it was hard to gain momentum. I guess that audiences don't realize that passive sitting and waiting for enlightenment drains energy from the room... and from me, the tuning fork of presenters! A few nods and smiles go a long way to keeping me pumped and primed to deliver energy. Without them, I wilt. Yes, I am co-dependent, nuerotic... whatever you want to call it. I'll claim my insecurity.
And when you leave Bismark, ND - as far as driving out of town, it is not a slow gradual transition as it is in more populated areas. One minute - you are in front of a Red Lobster and KMart and the next minute, you are out in the farmland for as far as your eye can see. Boom - you have dropped off into the nowhere...
I was lucky enough to book a stay at the Hampton Inn, which is always pleasant. White linens, feather pillows, microwave, clean etc etc. Men's underwear did not drop out of the foot of my bed as they did in the Raddison in Tucson - nor did I have to pay for internet, parking, or breathing as I do in the 'luxe' hotels. Hampton Inn is about the best you can do when traveling - unless you are staying at a 4 Seasons (which just doesn't happen to me!) And I hit all the chain restaurants that appear in every other town - so it was much like being in any other town - same hotel, same food, same stores... how comfortably homogeneous travel can be sometimes.