south dakota, my dakota

So! The editor at Backpacker who liked my trail dogs idea and I have been eamiling back and forth. I wrote today to tell him I dropped a packet in the mail for him yesterday. So we start talking and he asks me what areas I"m familiar with in North America. I tell him about New Hampshire, the Gunks, the places I've traveled like Mexico and Yosemite. Offhandedly, I tell him tthat I grew up on the corn and cows east side of South Dakota. Well, he writes back. Apparently, Brookings is named after some distant relative of his. Then he says, "South Dakota is a state we could do something with." Then I say I'd love to write about, like, hiking in the Badlands or something. (Not that I've ever *been* there, but he doesn't know that). He writes back telling me I should check out their redesign, that he'll send me some back copies of the magazine, and that I should "start thinking about South Dakota."

Now, I'm not sure this will really lead to anyth8ing but that sounds to me like it could blossom into an *actual paying assignment." To go hiking in South Dakota! Or maybe write about buffalo or Crazy Horse or the Black Hills or something. Rad. I wonder if I need to find something newsy going on there. Hmmmm. Seems like if I'm going to do something, I should do it now -- in just a few weeks it will be too cold there. But then they couldn't run it anyway, 'cause it's of no use to readers in the winter. Maybe I'll be able to write about it in the spring. Sigh. So far off.