ABSTRACT
These final thoughts were written immediately after another trip by car across the US from the West Coast to Wisconsin. We drove through the heartland, in a straight line eastward, more or less, through California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and on a diagonal through Wiseonsin: from Mississippian bluffs to the mixed eonifers and softwood forests of the nonheast. Onee we left Salt Lake City behind us, we erossed the interstate freeways oeeasionally but rarely travelled on them. We didn't eamp along the way as we have so many times, but stayed in motels, one a 'Ma and Pa' establishment we had stopped at before, another one owned and operated by a Pakistani family, and the rest were operated by motel ehains that boast of their ability to provide all the neeessities and some of the luxuries for the traveller at a modest cost. As one sign in the parking area of one of the motels said, 'When you are asleep, we look to you just like those faney motels you would pay twiee as mueh for'. They provided the neeessities all right, and for many parts of the world they would be penultimate luxuries: soft, clean beds, funetional bathrooms with ample hot water and clean towels, eable 1V with free movies, and, oh yes, free eoffee in the offiee and a swimming pool. We were reminded of the material riehness in the USA, a riehness that many Amerieans take for granted but some have little opponunity to enjoy.
