DOH!

1

May 4, 2011 by esarsea

The photograph above (I apologize for the blurred image) was taken with my cell phone camera just a few moments ago. It’s a section of a large (4′ x 6′) map of The United States that hangs on the wall of my office.

I was looking at this map earlier and noticed a black, oval-shaped circle that appears in South-Central Wyoming, between Interstate 80 and the Colorado border. It’s easy to see in the image above. At first glance I thought maybe someone had come in my office and circled a small town, or some other area of interest.

Upon closer examination, with my reading glasses now in place, I noticed that the circle seemed to appear in the middle of nowhere. No city, no lake, no mountain – nothing. Even more unusual was that it appeared not to be written in black pen, but actually printed on the map by the manufacturer.

I must have stood there staring at the map with this dumb, puzzled look on my face for a full 15-20 seconds. Then, as I started to turn away I could see, written sideways and stretching from Montana, through Wyoming, and all the way to New Mexico:

R  O  C  K  Y    M  O  U  N  T  A  I  N  S

I need a vacation.