Well, I can see how you could get that impression, Gary. But technically the "West" doesn't start until Colorado. Or, further north, Montana -- as both Nebraska and the Dakotas are kind of in a weird transistion zone ... is it the West.. or the Mid-west? Having lived in extreme eastern Montana for a time...just a stone's throw from the Dakota border... I'd have to say that culturally, it was much more midwestern than Western.

The "midwest" to me is places like Illinois, Iowa, Wisconson, most of Kansas, Nebraska.. and so on.

To be more specific, my home stomping grounds are "The Rocky Mountian West" That includes, by most consensus, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, much of Utah, Wyoming and parts of Nevada.. maybe even a wee bit of Arizona...

Although Arizona is really actuall the "Southwest." And much of Utah and even parts of Colorado are very southwestern.. being a wide open high-plains desert and all.

And then of course, you have the "Great Northwest" which includes Washington, Oregon and northern California.

But then again, extreme eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington could be considered part of the West, because the landscape is so arid and open. And parts of Montana and the Idaho panhandle actually have more in common -- in terms of landscape, anyway -- withe the Great Northwest than with the Rocky Mountain West.

So, anyway, are you confused now? LOL.