Sometimes I troll the science board on certain social media web sites.  These are places where smart people ask questions about science and even smarter people answer them.  I occasionally chime in with innapropriate, off-topic jokes and end up getting  banned.

In my time there, I noticed one of the most common questions goes something like this:

If the universe is comprised of vast nothingness and is said to be still expanding, what, then, is it expanding into?

The really smart people try to explain how the universe is expanding like a balloon being inflated and that our primitive minds can’t really visualize “nothingness” and then they post some equations that have a lot of Greek letters and some hieroglyphics that looks like it would be more at home in Hangar 13 at Area 51 than on this board.  That’s when I get lost and make a joke about Uranus.

I’m ready for them now, though.

Here is how it will go:

Smart person: If the universe is comprised of mostly nothing and is expanding, what is it expanding into:

Me: North Dakota. (pic related)…

I drove across central South Dakota just to scratch North Dakota off my list.  It was like making the Kessel Run….you lose track of space and time and which one is which.

It is devoid of…stuff. there is just nothing here.

Some might say they have different priorities in the Dakotas…

I like that they included a cute cartoon fox in this PSA

We have all heard of Fargo..right?

I mean, even before Steve  Buscemi got fed through that wood chipper in that movie with the pregnant cop, we had heard of Fargo.  Big city, right?

It is about the same size (though has a smaller population than) Edmonston, Md.  Not Hyattsville – they are dwarfed by Hyattsville. Edmonston.  Unless you are from there, you’ve never heard of it.

But, I had to come here. The EM-50 Phantom Rambler is old, and tired and may not finish the trek, but North Dakota was a must.  In my time I have rambled through 47 states now – 32 just on this road trip so far (with more to add before I’m done). The only ones left are Alaska,  Hawaii and, for some reason Vermont.

This was my one chance to achieve North Dakota, and now it is done.

My next destination is South Trixie (heh heh, that’s a dirty joke.)