NOTE: I will never call Ohio flat again. Never. Ohio is, as described by Eli, "wavy". A very nice description. It is especially wavy as you travel west. Southern and eastern Ohio is actually hilly.
This beautiful waviness, these undulating green hills, continues for miles and miles-through Indiana and Illinois. There is a theory that the Book of Mormon actually took place here in the United States and that "The Land Bountiful" is, indeed, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. As I drove through it, I could see that....
And then we got into Kansas...What happened? This land is so flat, it plays tricks on your mind. It's like a Twilight Zone episode. That highway (54, I think) went on for I think 300 miles. STRAIGHT! No deviation, no turning to the left or the right. It's like a metaphor for obedience. There's probably scripture for that highway. The scenery never changes, unless you count the occasional ACRES of cattle. ACRES. What do you think that smells like? Oh wait, that was Texas....which looked EXACTLY THE SAME. So, from Kansas, through the Oklahoma panhandle and through Texas, there was virtually no change of scenery, road, or sky. It was numbing. I would sit in my seat, and then suddenly come to consciousness, but the surroundings weren't any different and I would ask my brother if I had been sleeping. He would look at me and say, "You want me to tell you if you were sleeping? And you're the smart one?"
Apparently I had dozed off and some time had passed, but nothing looked different....nothing had changed....it was like no time had passed...that can mess with a person's head...well, with THIS person's head, I'll put it like that.
We finally broke into New Mexico (The land of enchantment), and the scenery almost immediately changed-for the better. There was variety, there were rock cliffs, the rocks were red, even the clouds were quirky and creative. Thank goodness for New Mexico.
I'm grateful for Kansas and Oklahoma and Texas. We get a lot of good things from them. They're good folk. I just don't want to ever have to drive through them again. God bless 'em. Them and their flatness. Tomorrow we take off for the rest of New Mexico, Arizona and back into California. Now we're getting into territory that I'm familiar with. Roads that I recognize...routes 40, 215, 15, etc. I'm cool now. I'm close enough to home to smell it...not like those acres of cattle....
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2 comments:
For the record...I am incredibly jealous our your almost cross country road trip. I've always wanted to just hop in my car and do it. Although I couldn't do it by myself. There is only so much I can handle of me talking to myself.
Rachel, it would be difficult to laugh and drive at the same time...
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