Steve Bell's 2008 US convention sketchbook: Days four to eight

Thanks to my own stupidity I ended up at the Invesco Field with my view occluded by TV presenters and the buttocks of cameramen. I was there to see history in the making, but I couldn’t actually see anything Photograph: Copyright © Steve Bell 2008

So, in common with most other people in the world, I see it on the screen. It may be because of my awkward situation, but I am thoroughly underwhelmed by Obama’s big speech. I do notice one crucial thing however... Photograph: Copyright © Steve Bell 2008

Barack Obama has a presidential overbite. Also, the fireworks were really crap. I return to the hotel, grumpy and thoroughly knackered Photograph: Copyright © Steve Bell 2008

It’s the weekend and we’re in a hired Chevrolet Badass heading to Minneapolis via Mount Rushmore, well over 400 miles north of Denver. Rushmore and the even larger, but less finished, hill carving of Crazy Horse just down the road both have excellent museums, though Rushmore’s is somewhat more well-heeled. There is much fuel for future cartoons here Photograph: Copyright © Steve Bell 2008

The real eye-opener for me is the prairie. It’s vast and goes on forever, which I’d expected, but is surprisingly varied and beautiful. And, out here in the west, it is of course wild. We stay at the Alex Johnson hotel in Rapid City, South Dakota - not far from Rushmore - so we are definitely following Cary Grant’s footsteps from Hitchcock’s North by Northwest Photograph: Copyright © Steve Bell 2008

The road goes on and on. It’s over 600 miles from Rapid City to St Paul. There are lots of big lorries, big bikers with stars and stripes bandanas instead of helmets, and occasional bits of tumbleweed Photograph: Copyright © Steve Bell 2008

I love it though. I adore the way everything is just plonked down on the landscape with maximum surrealism and an absolute disregard for good taste. Wall Drug turns out to be a huge drug store in a town called Wall, the gateway to the Badlands. There have been Wall Drug billboards for at least the last 500 miles Photograph: Copyright © Steve Bell 2008

The Badlands appear southwards to our right. They get worse and then they get better... Photograph: Copyright © Steve Bell 2008

Until finally they disappear in the haze. It’s hot out here. I sit in the back of the Badass as we whizz through the landscape, watercolours poised on my knee. Fortunately, I’m not driving Photograph: Copyright © Steve Bell 2008

I’m really getting off on this. I try and imagine what it must have been like to have travelling this route on horseback in the opposite direction - with no air-conditioned Badass to relax in. Then I push the thought aside Photograph: Copyright © Steve Bell 2008

Northwards, to our left, the prairie is a different colour. A sign announces that this is the National Grassland Photograph: Copyright © Steve Bell 2008

On and on we go, crossing into Central Standard Time and then crossing the Missouri. The prairie is gradually becoming more cultivated. Still beautiful though... Photograph: Copyright © Steve Bell 2008

Which is more than I can say for the Republican delegates, a high proportion of whom seem to be wearing light blue denim shirts and cream cowboy hats. Perhaps unwisely, I am sitting among a large group of Texans in downtown St Paul. I am outraged to discover Bush is not going to show and has fled south to turn back hurricane Gustav. Will I ever get to see him in the flesh? Photograph: Copyright © Steve Bell 2008

It seems not, but I sit tight and witness his wife, Laura Bush, addressing the convention. I’d always wondered what a nice girl like Laura Bush was doing with an idiot like George, but now I’ve seen her close-up (or at least through binoculars) I realise she is possibly more evil-looking than he is. As for Cindy McCain, she doesn’t look like a person who eats food. Maybe George will turn up as a surprise guest later in the week, but somehow I doubt it Photograph: Copyright © Steve Bell 2008