14APRIL2011 - I am sitting in the Bagel Company in Helena, MT drinking coffee, eating molasses/ginger cookies and thumping a keyboard arranging an on-line bus ticket from Helena, Arkansas to Dickinson, ND. By buying it so far in advance, a 5JULY departure date, I get the lowest possible price. The oil flow from Lybya being disrupted, fuel costs are rising a lot and soon the bus ticket prices will rise also. Coffee is kicking in now ... my cold of five days is breaking into chunky/plegmy (and not molasses or ginger) stuff ... yet the molasses and ginger is melting amplishously into the coffee causing a pausing and an ahh-h-h-h.

I have no idea if a 5JULY departure will be realized. Almost certainly a different date will occur, but altering a bus ticket is done for an extra cost of only $15. After two months floating in the open air, I will happily dive into a cozy seat and experience a couple of days of calm air. Already I am enjoying it - is it the coffee?

Why Dickinson? I will leave my S10 pickup there, that being the closest bus stop town to McKenzie Bay where I will once again get onto the water.