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Description
Scene from my upcoming sequel to "The Outsider"

The trip started out strange, and only got stranger as they made their way northeast through the mountains and descended into the desolate steppe towards the Wyoming border. Ruthie was sitting up high, as high as when she was sitting in a chartered bus during Dan's photo shoots. But instead of looking out the side window, she was looking straight ahead from her passenger seat perch. Being so high off the ground disoriented her and just didn't feel right. She felt like a small child inside that huge cab and like she was flying over the road. The surrounding vehicles were totally different from what she was used to seeing in Davenport. Instead of mid-sized electric cars, sports cars, and public buses, everything along the highway was either an obscenely huge pickup truck similar to the one Jacob was driving, or a massive semi tractor-trailer. It seemed that none of the locals had heard of the word "economic" or "compact" when it came to transportation. Well, there wasn't anything more she could say about the Dumfries pickup: along that highway it wasn't out-of-place at all.

When they crossed the state line between Utah and Wyoming, the billboards and political signs dotting the desolate landscape did absolutely nothing to set her nerves at ease.

Victor Meijer = Divine Intervention (Illustrated with a smiling Meijer being blessed by a translucent Jesus in the background)

Gun Control means a good headshot. (Illustrated with a silhouette of a head with blood exploding out the back)

Save a cow. Eat a liberal. (This one with a cartoon of a smiling cow with a fork and knife and looking at the viewer)

Stand with FA, or die with the liberals! (with flames running across the lower part of the sign)

Victor Meijer - Two terms - not enough! (with Victor Meijer sitting on a throne and wearing a crown)

Take my gun, and I'll take your life! (with a gun barrel pointed at the viewer)

In addition to being bothered by her alien surroundings, Ruthie was becoming increasingly apprehensive about her outburst in the airport parking garage. She was not good at making small talk, so she worried that recovering and gaining Jacob's trust would be difficult. She did not feel that apologizing would do any good and in fact might make the situation even more tense than it was already. The only way forward was to talk about Cascabel Mesa and the upcoming excavation. She questioned Jacob extensively about what he had found so far and probed his knowledge about sedimentary rocks in general. She grilled him about the geological history of Longbow County and what he knew about previous land surveys. She also demanded to know if he had already bought topographical maps and if he know how to use surveying equipment. Jacob was unsettled by the graduate student's rapid-fire questions, not yet knowing that was how she dealt with being nervous. The tempo of Ruthie's speech always picked up when she felt uneasy about where she was or over something she had said that she should've kept to herself.

The final stretch across the miles of barren desolation drove home how isolated Ruthie would be while on her trip. She had been to plenty of out-of-the-way places before, but Longbow County took that to the extreme. She wondered how on earth anyone could exist in such a godforsaken stretch of the planet. But then, she checked herself. Actually, if she had the right comforts and something to keep her busy, she wouldn't mind the solitude. With those contradictory thoughts in her mind, she noticed that Cascabel Mesa was becoming visible in the distance.

Description
Scene from my upcoming sequel to "The Outsider"

The trip started out strange, and only got stranger as they made their way northeast through the mountains and descended into the desolate steppe towards the Wyoming border. Ruthie was sitting up high, as high as when she was sitting in a chartered bus during Dan's photo shoots. But instead of looking out the side window, she was looking straight ahead from her passenger seat perch. Being so high off the ground disoriented her and just didn't feel right. She felt like a small child inside that huge cab and like she was flying over the road. The surrounding vehicles were totally different from what she was used to seeing in Davenport. Instead of mid-sized electric cars, sports cars, and public buses, everything along the highway was either an obscenely huge pickup truck similar to the one Jacob was driving, or a massive semi tractor-trailer. It seemed that none of the locals had heard of the word "economic" or "compact" when it came to transportation. Well, there wasn't anything more she could say about the Dumfries pickup: along that highway it wasn't out-of-place at all.

When they crossed the state line between Utah and Wyoming, the billboards and political signs dotting the desolate landscape did absolutely nothing to set her nerves at ease.

Victor Meijer = Divine Intervention (Illustrated with a smiling Meijer being blessed by a translucent Jesus in the background)

Gun Control means a good headshot. (Illustrated with a silhouette of a head with blood exploding out the back)

Save a cow. Eat a liberal. (This one with a cartoon of a smiling cow with a fork and knife and looking at the viewer)

Stand with FA, or die with the liberals! (with flames running across the lower part of the sign)

Victor Meijer - Two terms - not enough! (with Victor Meijer sitting on a throne and wearing a crown)

Take my gun, and I'll take your life! (with a gun barrel pointed at the viewer)

In addition to being bothered by her alien surroundings, Ruthie was becoming increasingly apprehensive about her outburst in the airport parking garage. She was not good at making small talk, so she worried that recovering and gaining Jacob's trust would be difficult. She did not feel that apologizing would do any good and in fact might make the situation even more tense than it was already. The only way forward was to talk about Cascabel Mesa and the upcoming excavation. She questioned Jacob extensively about what he had found so far and probed his knowledge about sedimentary rocks in general. She grilled him about the geological history of Longbow County and what he knew about previous land surveys. She also demanded to know if he had already bought topographical maps and if he know how to use surveying equipment. Jacob was unsettled by the graduate student's rapid-fire questions, not yet knowing that was how she dealt with being nervous. The tempo of Ruthie's speech always picked up when she felt uneasy about where she was or over something she had said that she should've kept to herself.

The final stretch across the miles of barren desolation drove home how isolated Ruthie would be while on her trip. She had been to plenty of out-of-the-way places before, but Longbow County took that to the extreme. She wondered how on earth anyone could exist in such a godforsaken stretch of the planet. But then, she checked herself. Actually, if she had the right comforts and something to keep her busy, she wouldn't mind the solitude. With those contradictory thoughts in her mind, she noticed that Cascabel Mesa was becoming visible in the distance.