Wow! Seven Months Since I Posted!

So I have been negligent in writing here….mostly because I enjoy keeping track of things that I see and what I am thinking. So I will fill in the gap as we go, but figured I would just start with this past week or so.

I left the Nantahala Outdoor Center in western NC on July 18th. I had been there for a week taking a Wilderness EMT Class…more on that later.

For many years, I had wanted to drive across the United States again…I had done so several times as a kid (I was a passenger) when my family lived in California). But I had not done it as an adult.

As an adult, I had travelled all over the US for business in planes trains and automobiles, and to the west on ski trips…but it wasnt the same.

So after some second thoughts, I took the plunge that morning on July 18 and headed west.

The first day and second days were relatively long since they were what I consider basically the same as the eastern US. I decided to lay on the miles and get up to South Dakota where I would take a more leisurely pace.

Day 1: Western NC to Cape Girardeau, MO
Nothing much to speak of…but western TN starts with corn country and that extends into MO for sure.

Day 2: Cape Girardeau MO to Sioux City, Iowa
Corn and….Corn.
Ironically, the first two days of the trip i was listening to the book The Omnivores Dilemna by Michael Pollan. I highly recommend this book. Some of you may say this is a “lefty” or “vegetarian advocacy” book. Not so. In any case, the first 20% of the book is about corn and its impact on the American diet.

I guess it was past Omaha at about 6pm in the evening, that I started to get the sense of moving from what is basically the entire eastern seaboard to the plains.

(Lets face it…from about Jacksonville to Boston and over to St Louis looks BASICALLY the same…it really doesnt look that different. Only into upper New England and into Southern Florida does it look different. Yes!! there are pockets near the coasts…but freeway driving….not much. I look foward to your comments. As if.)

Day 3: Sioux City, Iowa to Wall, SD

Corn and then….

So up to about Kennebec, SD it was still all CORN (see book ref above). And then the plains began and it was grass. My first real diversion from just driving was to visit the Fort Pierre National Grassland (FPNG). Wow! I can see some of you rolling your eyes. I truly believe the Great Plains of the US should be a wonder of the world. Even after having been settled. The FPNG is a sight to behold.

I pulled off the highway and took some pictures. But more important than the sights, in a way, was the smell. It smelled like spices. Not freshly cut grass, but wild grass (not to be an ass, but read the book i referenced…it talks about cattle raised on GRASS vs CORN….sorry…it was just ironic that i read (listened) to that book as I took this trip).

The fact is that this grassland was one of the main reasons i took the trip. The Great Plains.

I stayed in the night in Wall, SD which is just north of The Bandlands.