This is Planet Money from NPR.

There is a long stretch of I-80 between Cheyenne and Salt Lake City where I grew up.

That is almost nothing but highway and desert.

I have driven this stretch a million times.

And over the holidays I was driving it again, this time with my niece, Caterin and my nephew,

Alejandro.

We arrived to see the majestic cargo train and its natural habitat.

You like the David Ann Burrow of Road Trips?

Thank you.

Miles and miles of mostly shrubs, the occasional cargo train, and billboards.

One set of billboards in particular.

Large rooms, great rates, little America.

My niece, Caterin there.

The billboards that we're seeing are all for the same fancy truck stop slash hotel called

Little America.

That is in the absolute middle of this middle of nowhere.

For nearly 100 miles, these billboards show up every few minutes.

42 miles to Little America.

Oh, there's another one coming right up after it.

There in the desert, we are a captive audience to the running storyline of these billboards.

17 marble showers.

We even start anticipating them.

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