The American Great Plains

SOMEWHERE ALONG I-70 WEST, Missouri-December 29,2014-The Great plains is a broad expanse of grassland and prairies that stretch through the middle of North America and cover nine states in the U.S. We traveled through Colorado, Kansas and Missouri. Before there were any American states, the Plains Indians occupied this land. The Arapaho, Blackfoot, Comanche, Cheyenne, Crow and Sioux tribes hunted Bison and lived there lives here.

an ocean of grass

the American great plains

extend before me

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I-70 East

ABILENE,KS-December 21,2014-A flock of birds flies over I-70 East. This stretch of interstate freeway through Missouri and Kansas is where The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways was born. The network of highways took 35 years to build and is over 47,000 miles long, the second longest freeway system in the world.

I-70 East
an engineering marvel
old U.S. 40

Wordless Wednesday

Illuminating

streetlight in Denver
 a beacon in the dark sky
illuminating

#vanlife

My old VW bus on the beach at Williams Fork Reservoir in Colorado.

This is not a van. This is a bus. A Volkswagen bus with a Westfalia camper conversion. “The Pig” was there when Penny was born. Maizy and I took her camping in it when she was 2 months old. From that point on we toured as much of the Rocky Mountains as we could before the engine finally blew up. We beat up this already beaten bus. We rode it hard and conquered some of the highest mountain passes in the United States. I took her to 14,000 feet at Mt. Evans and got some epic pictures for my refrigerator in the process. This bus even made a Go Westy calendar a few years ago. I never did get a copy of that calendar.

We loved this bus. When the engine blew and we made the decision to give it up a little piece of me died with it. It was an impulse decision and a bad purchase all the way around. I paid too much. It was too rusty. It had very little in the way of heat. I once drove it in a blizzard with bald tires. We passed several cars and trucks that were overturned or stuck in ditches along I-70, barely able to see, hands freezing, inching forward ever so slowly. I think our top speed was 14 miles per hour on that stretch.

There was just something about this bus. We have a “new” 1982 Vanagon Westfalia now. Everything that was wrong with the pig is what is right with the new van. We plan to travel the country as slowly as possible in it. It has a stove and a sink, it has two beds, it will have a good heating system. We just have to keep it running which may or may not be a challenge. It’s all a part of the adventure now.

The laptop is in the shop and the iMac has a full hard drive. So I had to dig into the archives until I get my ThinkPad back. I took this photo about 3 years ago with an old Nikon DSLR that I borrowed from my oldest son. It was the first DSLR I ever used.

Devoid of People

looking for beauty
in a desolate landscape
devoid of people