The iconic long-nose of a Peterbilt truck I am sure has inspired many an argument amongst truck aficionados…  Mack, Kenworth, Volvo… Sort of like Cubs or White Sox, Mets or Yankees.  Designated hitter or not. Hell, anything would be more exciting that this story…

Again, what? Doesn’t Baldy know how to drive?  What use does he have for Mark now other than dead?  Smart of him, I guess, to demand the keys…

Mr. Cranky-pants!!

And it’s obvious by the two rutting elk, in the foreground of the second panel, that competition and conflict are not the exclusive domain of mankind… And I can also see a small structure in the upper right… civilization.  I wonder where they are on the map?!

She Speaks Again!  Now only to contradict the only other thing she said!

And where have you been, young lady?  We established Mark’s identity many installments ago… and Mark, always looking for a compliment aren’t you?  Only to be smacked down in person!  “You’re no entomologist!”  Ha! It doesn’t cut any deeper than that…

But seriously folks, as Mark used to say, “What th…?!”

I wish he would quickly, like how is Mr. Ponytail going to know what airstrip to go to… and why the hell didn’t they all just go the the plane in the first place and take off from Rapid city?  Why bring another witness into the mix?  Why do I care?

And it’s only now that Baldy has expressed even a slight interest in where they are going?  My head hurts like those two rutting rams in panel one!

The bleached mount on the roadside about says it all at this point…

And Mark’s constant prattling has managed to put Baldy to sleep and Blondie to affect her one and only “look.”  Sort of like Derek Zoolander…  who found he had but one look… but it was killer.

So that just goes to show you that rich guys don’t always have the best ideas…

So now it’s a ghost-strip to go along with the ghost-town… again, where is this going??  Nowhere fast, that’s for sure…

…it’s Mark.  If the whole point of this was to procure a get-away car/truck/SUV, that’s been accomplished.  Why Baldy hasn’t ice-ice-babied Mark or at least left him stranded at this point is a wonder to me…  Not to mention that Mark could ID the guy in his sleep by now.  Mark is a definite liability here.

Oh look, see the Big Horn Sheep!  For some reason come down from the elevations where one would normally find them…  Guessing they are very close to sea level at this point… but hey, what do I know??  Rapid City is at 3,200 ft!  But still I think these animals typically frolic at 6-8,000 ft based on my own expeditionary experience…

An airstrip huh? And Mr. Ponytail is in a plane?  Will he find his way out here?  Who knows… who cares??

Shoot!!

“The girl” means about as much to me as that hare getting raptored in panel one…

But what the heck, right?  Mr. Ponytail is still sitting in a plane at the airport?  While Baldy and “the girl” are driving to wherever Mark is going?  I am so confused.  No one ever said crooks are smart, but this guy is a real keeper…

There they are!  Lower left!  Cute little guys, about to emerge from an “abandoned” prairie dog burrow, abandoned because they ate all the prairie dogs!!  Looking to wreak more havoc on the landscape!

And what on earth is Mark hanging onto in the second panel?  That is the funniest looking steering wheel I have ever seen!  And all the shading drawn in around him?  Are we looking at Mark through Baldy’s eyes?  Does he have glaucoma?  I still don’t understand what Baldy’s strategy is here… there are probably 50  other ways to secure a getaway car that don’t involve brandishing a handgun and bringing other people into the situation, let alone Mark Trail…

I thought for sure yesterday that Mark was trying to remind the counter agent that he wasn’t fit to rent anything…  based on his dubious record of returning items unscathed…  But here we find him behind the wheel of a lovely blue SUV, apparently being paid for by one Leslie Joyce.  Who is what? A benefactor? An investor? A Sugar-Mommy?

But Mark, you are breaking with tradition!  Bad guys always call good guys by their surname- “Mr. Bond” or “Mr. Powers.”  “Nice try?”  How about, “Yea, right!”  Baldy probably has so many aliases he could tell you his name and it wouldn’t really be helpful!  And for love of Mike, that’s not a girl!  That’s a woman!  And doesn’t the kidnapper usually call the shots as far as where they go?  Are they going to drive to the Res and then what? Get introduced to Johnny Lone-Elk?