The flat, featureless plain |
I noticed the new sprouting agricultural plants and then noticed how much more they were matured down south as we went.
Then the corn gave way to wheat and its golden and amber hues. Still, all along the way, the only real "hiccup in all of this is the stretch from Emporia, Kansas to Wichita, Kansas. The Flint Hills, and those big, rolling waves of grassland punctuated by bovines and a few trees. Otherwise, the march of carefully husbanded land stretches as far as the eye can see. This tends to get a wee bit monotonous.
Then is when you start counting dead deer carcasses, or trying to render just what that smear on the road may have been when it drew breath last. A coyote? A skunk? Maybe a bloated raccoon over there yonder. Well, as you can tell, it isn't all that interesting running down the four lane concrete ribbons of the MidWest and Plains states.
Wait a minute here...... |
It might be the northernmost fringes of the llano estacado, or just a geologic oddity, but for a few miles, there is a preview of the Southwest. Then, just as soon as you start to grasp what you are looking at, the wheat fields return, and the land goes all flat again. For a little while....
I Can't Drive 25 |
Well, they let me off for past good behavior, at least, and now I can say that my "driving like a grandma" paid off for once. (Thank you to the kind officer in Meade for your undeserved mercy)
Somewhere west of town the landscape turned the page to "South-by-Southwest" for good and the excitement of the desert is looming.
Union Pacific rail bridge over the Cimmaron River |
Then we hit Liberal, Kansas. It is so great to hit the motel after 12.5 hours of windshield time, it is just crazy. Dead tired, pizza, shower, bed.
Tomorrow we hit the high plains and cross the mountains to the desert Southwest.......
1 comment:
It is beautiful out there in western Kansas. I drove through on Hwy 56 a few years back. But the Cimarron River? I looked for it, but all I found was a dry sandy ditch. Maybe it's a river this year with record snowfalls and all.
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