[at-l] Where the west REALLY begins

[Phil.Heffington@oc.edu (Phil Heffington)]

Just for you folks east of the Missisiisisppsii River, we in Oklahoma
know where the "west" really begins.  It is, in fact, where my office
sits in OKC.  To the east there are rolling hills, trees, and a
substance little known west of here that easterners call "water".

>From the other post showing the darkness and lights in North America you
can actually see this if you look carefully.

Reference:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/Images/land_ocean_i
ce_lights_2048.jpg

Notice in the central area of the map a line of dots that roughly
connect south Texas with Canada (Winnepeg, if you know what you are
looking at).  That, for all practical purposes is I-35.  West of there
is plains, with a little row of hills called the Rockies blocking the
way to the Pacific (see the little group of lights where Denver is
located).  Not so many lights out west, huh?, until you get to the
coast.

This has nothing to do with hiking, whatsoever, excluding the Rockies
comment, of course.  It's just that when you Sutthenuhs and Yankees get
in a discussion about such things as whether or not maybe the Civil War
may have had something to do with slavery, or something like that, we
Westerners get all left out of the regional pride thang (I was raised
[not reared] west of OKC).

Out here the big discussion is over the topic of whether or not "Custer
had it coming".

We think of all of you east of here as easterners, and thank God for
you.  You provide a little diversity in the whole hiking scene.