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Published: October 17th 2008
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Robb, Barbara, Jan, Denny, & Judy
A last quick hike near Mountain View Last blog: On The Way Home (outside Des Moines, IA).
I wasn’t sure whether I’d add anything more to this blog, but today we met Peggy Bender at a Starbuck’s inside a Target in Kearny, Nebraska, and this deserves a few words. How to explain that within minutes we were sharing our life history (well, some of it) with this total stranger, and vice versa. Many interesting convergences: Peggy a former Franciscan nun who studied at St. Xavier in Cincinnati (my best friend, Paul, an ex-Jesuit; his best friend, Bill - who I knew very well - an ex “Jebbie” from Cincinnati who taught at St. Xav); took architecture courses at MIT (my architect cousin, Sally, a grad of MIT); bought her dream house in Needham MA (I went to Wellesley next door; she walked around Lake Waban there frequently) and lived there many years; taught a class at the Unitarian church in Needham (enough said); now lives in Kearny, NB, and taught ESL teachers at the university there (I taught ESL in Evanston and volunteer in the program). And - she loves to travel. Before taking off, we followed Peggy so she could show us her house (she loves architecture,
and I’m a docent for CAF back home), and after exchanging email addresses and the address of our blog, we left Kearney having made - I think - a new friend. Just like that!
And, yesterday in Evanston, WY, at another Starbuck’s, a young woman having coffee overheard me asking (facetiously) whether I got a discount for being from Evanston, Illinois, caught our attention. She has been working in the town as a nanny, but her employer (female pilot) has been laid off, and this young woman is now looking at another nanny job (through an agency) in … Evanston, Illinois!
Which leads me to something of a defense of my “Starbuck’s Jones.” I do enjoy my usual “tall half-caf”, and especially on the road in the moments when the road begins to blend into one long, long ribbon.
We’ve been on the road since Monday afternoon, late, when we followed my cousin John from his father/my uncle’s birthday party in Piedmont, to his and wife Marion’s house outside Reno, where we gratefully stayed the night. Tuesday, it was off on I-80 toward home. Since I am incapable of doing justice to the gorgeous landscape of what
could seem an interminable drive, I will highlight just a few of the sights that have struck me on the drive.
The most astounding, as you can see from photos, was the rising of the full moon. One night it rose as a huge gray crescent over the mountains. Then as we approached a distant range of mountains, the moon disappeared behind them, only to rise again as we passed by. The photos show just how spectacular was this sight! The next night, the moon rose later, smaller, and orange in color - a reflection of the setting sun below the horizon. I will remember those moonrises for a long, long time.
What else have we seen?
A truck carrying a huge Target sign. Another carrying an airplane. A motorcycle carrying a good size black dog in a rear basket; the dog was actually standing with its front legs behind the driver’s seat - rear end in the basket. Crazy!
We’ve seen trucks carrying blades for wind turbines, and one carrying part of the body for same. We’ve seen huge wind farms in Wyoming and in Iowa, in the middle of bucolic farmland. Here and there
we’ve seen solitary wind turbines as well. Robb here: with the book I’m reading now, The Geography of Hope (by Chris Turner), it gives me some hope that we might be starting on the road to a sustainable energy economy.
We’ve seen gorgeous mountain landscapes and high country dusted with snow, and today I read in the paper that two ski resorts in Colorado officially opened yesterday. In Wyoming we saw many, many snow fences. In that state, we passed a number of signs for the continental divide, which meanders strangely east and west, as well as north and south, and splits in the middle of the state before coming back together, making the Great Divide Basin, which apparently doesn’t drain to anywhere.
Hotels have been cheap - chain hotels with doubles for $60, and we thought we’d seen the cheapest gas in Laramie WY, at $3.05, until we bought gas today in Ogallala, NB, at $2.78. We have seen gas as low as $2.49. As a sign of current economic times, we found another stand-alone Starbuck’s today, in Kearny NB, that has just closed (I remembered the one in Mammoth Lakes that has now closed as well),
while the one inside the Target down the road remains.
So tomorrow, Friday, we’ll be home, capping exactly seven weeks on the road. We will have driven about 8,750 miles. Does it seem like a lot? I guess so, but it doesn’t really seem like that much because we have seen so very much, spent time with so many great people, and luxuriated in the freedom of the road. Hope you’ve enjoyed going along, and enjoy the photos we’ve added to this edition.
Barbara (and Robb too)
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