10:05 p.m., Pierre, South Dakota.
I'm staring at a rainbow cutting across the whole sky.
The window to my mother-in-law's apartment shows the northwestern sky. The sun has just set, and we have dark blue at the zenith, growing lighter until a very thin band of green, and then a band of yellow at the top of a cloud bank on the far horizon. This colour shift continues, with the lower clouds glowing orange, and the clouds below that a deeper red. I'm sure that indigo is behind me.
The countryside stretches away a deep, dark green. We're at the edge of Pierre (pronounced Peer for some odd reason), and so there are few buildings poking out from this landscape. I see a couple of highways in the distance with headlights skimming in the distance. It's the quietest it's been for as long as I can remember.
I'm going to love this vacation.