Greyhound bus: Chicago - Los Angeles - Thru. Flat rich countryside. Space and sun. Red oxide barns with silver pinnacles. White timbered houses like Essex. Black and white cattle. Black purple soil layered with streaks of pale blue snow. Ochre sticks of corn stubble. China blue sky with hawks. Pink pigs burst out of the black earth like truffles. Hinky-Dinky superstores. Nothing over 100 years old.

Amerika du hast es besser
Als unser continent das alte
Hast keine verfallenen Schlösser
Und keine Bassalt.

Approaching Omaha. The fascination of waiting rooms where people are organized for doing nothing - for waiting. The air of expectation: of probing contacts. Curious notice in Atlantic: FOR SALE - NIGHT CRAWLERS. And small blue signs eveywhere which say 'EVACUATION ZONE' (from Indians or H-bombs?), and the extraordinary prevalence of mortuaries, neon-lit and glittering like cinemas.

- Keith Vaughan, Journal