We drove through a lot of flat land today. Leaving the red cliff plateaus and rich coffee black lava flows behind in Gallup, NM, we passed through some brief mountains topped with thunder heads trailing grey rain mists and came out in the wide open range country.
Long flat stretches where baby cows follow mother cows along fences in a loosely configured train of only moderate deliberation. They don't need to wander far from one windmill pumped water hole to the next. (The picture of the woolies is for Sophie and mom. And for Irwin, who knows I get excited too and points them out to me.)
In all of the places we stopped the people seemed tired and bored. There were towns that were nearly completely deserted, wiped out by who knows what.
There was one town though that we did know the cause of death for. Slightly after dark we came to Greensburg, Kansas. I don't know if anyone remembers but a few months ago this little town was literally destroyed by a tornado. Driving through there is still nothing but piles and piles of twisted metal that is only slightly recognizable as dumpsters and traffic poles. The rubble of every building has been put into a large pile on every property. There are several temporary relief homes that show signs of having been made permanent residences. The only building that looks like it was miraculously untouched is the liquor store. That sort of devastation is shocking to say the least. It's one thing to read about a tiny town getting blown off the map. It means something infinitely more when you drive through the wreckage of people's lives and see what's left.
This picture is for Irwin. The water tower reminds me of a robot looking at the one little round cloud. I hope you like it.
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