BJ Nemeth's Blog

Photos: (1) Rare sunset with "sundogs" visible on both sides (and my car eclipsing the sun), (2) Rhapsody is welcomed to Watertown, SD, (3) Pelican Lake, (4) Rhapsody walking on the frozen Pelican Lake, (5) Rhapsody at the Lewis & Clark Memorial, (6) The iPhone Stopwatch Paradox, where my iPhone's stopwatch has been running for a longer period of time (88,000+ hours, or 10+ years) than the iPhone itself has existed (3 years, or ~27,000 hours).

Day 8 began in South Dakota with the coldest temperatures of the trip (-9^F), as I mentioned yesterday. But they may have provided me with the coolest photo, as I got to see (and photograph) the rare "sundog" effect, which I originally called "triple sunrise" until my Twitter followers clued me in. The effect come from sunlight refracting off tiny ice crystals in the atmosphere, and it is a very cool sight.

Rhapsody and I spent the morning in Watertown, and the temperature never got above -4^F while we were there. We drove around Pelican Lake, which appeared to be frozen solid. Anytime I see tire tracks in the snow, with more fresh snow on top of that, I think it's safe enough for me and Rhapsody. I dug down about 18 inches before I reached ice, and it was hard as a rock. I didn't even feel nervous, and it was fun to be "out on the lake" with Rhapsody even if it has a completely different meaning in sub-zero weather.

We traveled down to Council Bluffs, Iowa and Omaha, Nebraska, which ate side by side across the border. We drove around and explored a bit, found the Lewis & Clark Memorial, and ended up ordering a $6.00 Papa John's pepperoni pizza for dinner. It's not traditional road-trip food, and I had to give Rhapsody her own piece to keep her out of my food. Still, 10 years from now, eating an entire pizza in the car with Rhapsody is probably what I'll remember.

We reached Lincoln, Nebraska after dark, but it's an interesting city and we spent more than an hour driving and walking around. I assumed Lincoln would be relatively boring (like Fargo or Omaha), but it's actually a cool city that seems to mix the best qualities of a big city and a small town. I'd love to visit on a big football weekend in September or October when it's not too chilly.

Rhapsody and I eventually made it into Colorado before stopping to sleep for the night at the I-76 Welcome Center (which is where I write this).

If you were following my Twitter feed, you know the sundogs weren't the only strange phenomenon that I experienced on Day 8. My iPhone had several instances where the time and dated instantly rolled back to January 4, 2000.

The iPhone gets its time from the cellular towers, but for some reason they were sending out a time signal representing over 10 years ago. What is most curious to me is that the effect happened three different times (in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska), but the time signal from 2000 continues to move forward the same rate as the present. So two nights ago, in North Dakota, it slipped to the night of Jan 3, 2000. Yesterday morning, it slipped to the morning of Jan 4, 2000. And last night it slipped to the night of Jan 4, 2000. If it happens today, I expect it to show me Jan 5, 2000.

So the effect has appeared from multiple cell towers across multiple states, and it's exactly the same error. I know the time signal comes from the cell towers, but I have no idea what is causing this specific glitch in the matrix. I'll research it in depth the next time I have my laptop hooked up to the Internet. (Probably when I get to LA in three weeks.)

So if you see me twittering about time travel, dual timelines, or the fact that this road trip now includes all 50 states, Mexico, Canada, and the nexus of the space-time continuum -- now you'll know what I'm referring to.

Today's goal is to get through the Rocky Mountains before sunset. Shouldn't be too hard, but we plan to stop in the Boulder area to visit some old friends.