D E V I L S T O W E R
Wednesday, August 18, 2004

My day starts out in a cow pasture a few miles from Devils Tower National Monument. Perfect. The pasture turns out to be nothing special other than being nice and secluded. As you can see, I've smeared off the van's URL dirt sign. The previous day, when driving around Sheridan, WY in search of an Internet connection, I noticed people looking at the van and I didn't like the feeling. Having that level of visibility is especially bad when "slinking" around neighborhoods, driving slowly from house to house, street to street, sniffing out wireless Internet signals. I've chosen stealth over self-promotion.

Before heading out to the Monument I decide to work on the website for a few hours. Pickup truck traffic periodically passes by but they don't stop to bother me, seems no one cares that I'm ...uhh... trespassing? But there were no signs posted so...

11am rolls around and I see this tractor-trailer pull into view. Upon the trailer are piled bundles of straw, all rolled up tight-like in cylinders. Shortly thereafter a green tractor with a specialized jaw pulls up to the van and just sits there. I'm sitting in the van in plain view, my privacy curtain is pulled open, and I'm just typing away on my laptop.

Well, I not getting out of the van to investigate because I'm busy. So the tractor starts moving again and pulls up alongside the double-side doors. I think again, I'm not getting out of the van, I'm busy. After about a minute or so, the tractor pulls around the back and to the other side of the van. I start thinking, "Is he was trying to figure out how to connect his tractor's jaws to the van so he could flip it?"...yeah, I'm just paranoid. In any event, either the driver can't figure out how to flip the van or decides I'm harmless, so he goes on his way over to the semi and starts unloading the straw cylinders.

I take his actions as a "shot over the bow" on his part and leave shortly thereafter. I'm glad I didn't have to record my flipped van as my 7th mishap of the trip. But it would have been funny...eventually...years later...maybe.