On the third day from Mitchell, after twenty-four days on Interstate 90, I exited south on 29 toward Sioux Falls. I could see the city in the distance, and even though I was tired, I decided that a good hotel with room service and a hot bath would be worth the extra effort. At nearly twenty-six miles I stopped at a Sheraton.

I decided to take a rest day. For breakfast I ordered eggs Benedict from room service, ate, then put on my swimsuit. I borrowed the terrycloth robe that hung in my closet, then went downstairs to the hot tub.

The hotel lobby was crowded with hundreds of mature ladies wearing red hats and purple dresses, some of them accessorized with feather boas or red or purple fuzzy socks.

I crossed the lobby to the pool area. The hot tub was located on the far side of the pool. Two women were already in the tub, chatting loudly over the sound of bubbling water. They were wearing red hats as well. They stopped talking and looked at me as I folded my robe over the arm of a pool chair and stepped into the water. I closed my eyes and sank into the tub up to my neck.

When I opened my eyes the women were still looking at me.

“Hi,” I said.

“How are you?” the one nearest me said.

“I’m fine. And you?”

“Having the time of our lives,” said the other woman, who was a little taller and had unnaturally red hair.

“Why are you wearing red hats?” I asked.

“We belong to the Red Hat Society.”

“I’m not familiar with that.”

“We’re just a bunch of dames out for a good time,” the first lady said. “You haven’t heard of us?”

“Sorry, no. I’m not from Sioux Falls.”

“Oh, this isn’t just a Sioux Falls thing,” the tall lady said indignantly. “The Red Hatters are global. We have more than forty thousand chapters worldwide. We’ve been featured in Time magazine and on television shows. We’ve even been on The Simpsons.”

“The Simpsons?” I said. “I’m sorry, I guess I’ve been in a cave for a while. Actually, I’ve been on a walk.”

“That must be some walk,” the second woman said.

“I’m walking across America.”

“Oh my,” the first lady said, “that is a walk.”

“Really,” the second said. “Which side of the country did you start on?”

“I started in Seattle.”

“How long ago did you start?”

“It’s been nearly eight months. But I got held up five months in Spokane. I got stabbed just outside of the city.”

“Stabbed?” the second woman said.

I rose up out of the water to show my scars from the attack.

The first woman put her hand over her mouth. “Oh my. How horrible.”