Summer 2005 Road Trip
It is Tuesday mid afternoon at the time I begin writing this. Shawn and I are on the initial leg of a Summer Road Trip. We have the delightful company of our dear friend, Neta. She is coming with us to Colorado. There we will visit with her family some. We will then leave her to visit her children, and we will travel on to Texas to visit our family, stopping in New Mexico to visit a fellow female falconer I met last year at the NAFA meet. And, if the weather is good, Shawn and I shall also get a balloon ride. My friend, Sharon, is a balloon pilot. So, I’m hoping for good weather.
For now, we are winding our way through Iowa backroads. Gordon Lightfoot sings his mellow songs on the stereo. Normally we would take the Interstate. However, Neta lives in Gays Mills, which is some distance from the Interstate in Wisconsin. And to return to it would be backtracking. So, we are making our way though lots of back roads and county roads. We have already passed over the Missisippi, and are now seeing lots of Iowa corn fields, open prairies, and small, quaint towns. Neta enjoys looking at all the old houses. This truly is the backbone of America! “Flyover Country” as referred to residents of the East and West coast. But here are many good people, and strong communities that make up the majority of the population of our country. However . . . it can take a very long time to drive through all this back country and get to the Interstate. After all, our goal is to GET to Colorado. Once we make it to the Interstate again, we’ll make good progress.
For now, there is nothing much else to write about. Iowa has lots of corn!! Lots and Lots of it!!
It is now 5:00 Central Daylight Time. However, we are now in the desolate landscape of Eastern Colorado. We’ve passed into a new time zone, Mountain Time. So, where we are at it is actually 4:00. As we drove through Nebraska last night we skirted around a pretty spectacular thunderstorm that raged all around us. I spent a good portion of yesterday afternoon and evening working on a long e-mail to a friend, to be uploaded when I next find a computer connected to the Internet. In the later evening, I made the best nest I could in the back seat of the car and tried to sleep some. Shawn has been driving through the night, but as the sun comes up, he promises to give the wheel up to me. So, I’m waking up, spending a few minutes with the glow of the computer screen in my eyes. Surprisingly enough, the road outside is wet! A good storm came through the entire area. The desert outside will certainly appreciate the gift of rain. At first Eric Clapton stroked his guitar on the stereo. But now Shawn has changed that, and Pink Floyd sings of The Dark Side of the Moon. A waning quarter moon hangs in the sky. We watch for eyes on the road. Deer and rabbits and a solitary owl so far. It may be a desert, but there is definitely life here! The storm has passed, and a clear, star-filled sky stretches from horizon to horizon. It is very dark!
As the sun came up, I took over the driving duties. With the morning sun coming up, the hawks came out. So easy to see out here in the open high desert. They sit on the only perches provided to them, telephone poles. It must make it easy for Colorado falconers in the fall to find their passage candidates for the trap. Just drive along the long open roads and watch the poles. I played for Neta a new CD I’ve picked up by a group called Dream Catcher. It is very nice Celtic music. Very appropriate for the early dawn hours. Shawn caught a little sleep in the back. As the miles went by, we came over a bend in the road, and there in the distance the first signs of the mountains to come. I had to take a picture! Pike’s Peak is a part of this range. And as we drove to the home of our hosts we also passed by Cheyenne Mountain, the home of the NORAD, and the center of all the military defense communications for our country. All you could see was a whole lot of radio towers at the top of the mountain. So, I had to simply believe that’s what I was looking at.
For now, we are winding our way through Iowa backroads. Gordon Lightfoot sings his mellow songs on the stereo. Normally we would take the Interstate. However, Neta lives in Gays Mills, which is some distance from the Interstate in Wisconsin. And to return to it would be backtracking. So, we are making our way though lots of back roads and county roads. We have already passed over the Missisippi, and are now seeing lots of Iowa corn fields, open prairies, and small, quaint towns. Neta enjoys looking at all the old houses. This truly is the backbone of America! “Flyover Country” as referred to residents of the East and West coast. But here are many good people, and strong communities that make up the majority of the population of our country. However . . . it can take a very long time to drive through all this back country and get to the Interstate. After all, our goal is to GET to Colorado. Once we make it to the Interstate again, we’ll make good progress.
For now, there is nothing much else to write about. Iowa has lots of corn!! Lots and Lots of it!!
It is now 5:00 Central Daylight Time. However, we are now in the desolate landscape of Eastern Colorado. We’ve passed into a new time zone, Mountain Time. So, where we are at it is actually 4:00. As we drove through Nebraska last night we skirted around a pretty spectacular thunderstorm that raged all around us. I spent a good portion of yesterday afternoon and evening working on a long e-mail to a friend, to be uploaded when I next find a computer connected to the Internet. In the later evening, I made the best nest I could in the back seat of the car and tried to sleep some. Shawn has been driving through the night, but as the sun comes up, he promises to give the wheel up to me. So, I’m waking up, spending a few minutes with the glow of the computer screen in my eyes. Surprisingly enough, the road outside is wet! A good storm came through the entire area. The desert outside will certainly appreciate the gift of rain. At first Eric Clapton stroked his guitar on the stereo. But now Shawn has changed that, and Pink Floyd sings of The Dark Side of the Moon. A waning quarter moon hangs in the sky. We watch for eyes on the road. Deer and rabbits and a solitary owl so far. It may be a desert, but there is definitely life here! The storm has passed, and a clear, star-filled sky stretches from horizon to horizon. It is very dark!
As the sun came up, I took over the driving duties. With the morning sun coming up, the hawks came out. So easy to see out here in the open high desert. They sit on the only perches provided to them, telephone poles. It must make it easy for Colorado falconers in the fall to find their passage candidates for the trap. Just drive along the long open roads and watch the poles. I played for Neta a new CD I’ve picked up by a group called Dream Catcher. It is very nice Celtic music. Very appropriate for the early dawn hours. Shawn caught a little sleep in the back. As the miles went by, we came over a bend in the road, and there in the distance the first signs of the mountains to come. I had to take a picture! Pike’s Peak is a part of this range. And as we drove to the home of our hosts we also passed by Cheyenne Mountain, the home of the NORAD, and the center of all the military defense communications for our country. All you could see was a whole lot of radio towers at the top of the mountain. So, I had to simply believe that’s what I was looking at.
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