New Englander out West: One More Thing

Billings, MT -- Excited to be taking a Sunday off from riding in the big (90,000 people) city of Billings, I went downtown to buy myself a Sunday New York Times. I was told with a smile that it would be in on Thursday and that they only ordered a few copies because not many people wanted the news four days late. There just wasn't any good way to get the paper to Billings.

Portland is further away from Boston than Billings is, but I'm learning that a place's geographical location isn't always as important as the sort of networks that it's in. In the farm country of central Illinois I was only a couple hundred miles from Chicago, but I couldn't find the Chicago Tribune anywhere.

I'll be able to get the Times in Portland. I think the East Coast will end up being closer to the West Coast than to a lot of places in between.