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Thoughts from the road: south-north--south truck trip
More simply put, we went from Texas to Wyoming and back in a pick-up to
be with my family of origin. The directions could be confusing to
anyone wanting to follow my route. South began in North Central
Texas. The 8000+ feet high elevation's northern destination was near
South Pass, not far from Atlantic City. Being with one's family of
origin can sometimes be as confusing.
Visiting family members' homes meant hearing a wide variety of types of news coverage of the memorializing of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Some are Fox News folks; some were watching CNN. Some are in semi-permanent boycott of the news. None of us could speak coherently about what would become of any health care reform legislation. Polarization seems much worse
Along the road we saw signs that a recession has been in progress. Many small towns had smaller populations and more empty buildings. Some seemed to be surviving better because of good crops brought on by plentiful rain. Plentiful grass tempted grazing cattle in New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. Not all oil wells are pumping, but all windmill farms had grown. Fewer travel trailers and motor homes appeared until the Wyoming border. Then it seemed the state was every traveler's destination.
Mile after mile after mile of road re-doing was our driving norm. The federal stimulus money is flowing out across the land in the form of asphalt overcoats for interstate highways, and small town main streets. Occasionally, some dollars went for curbs and sidewalks. We can assume the projects were items that were "shovel ready." Wyoming seems relatively unaffected by the recession. Colorado homebuilding seemed to have slowed a bit. Rural Texas has been hit hard, except for the big agribusiness acreages now planted largely to corn for fuel. Cattle feed lots are largely empty, but baby calves abound in most pastures. Wildlife was abundant: camels in the Panhandle, buffalo in Texas and Wyoming, prairie dog towns, healthy deer with big racks, antelope from Texas and New Mexico to Wyoming, and big fat Canadian geese cleaning seed from harvested grain fields.
Our family is rather tame so we do not qualify as wildlife. And now my siblings and I are the oldest members of our family. Our parents are no longer with us. My dad's birthday would have been today. Natives of Wyoming and Nebraska, respectively, my dad and mom loved the wide open spaces of both Texas and Wyoming. And now they are at rest on a hill that looks west to the Rockies.
Visiting family members' homes meant hearing a wide variety of types of news coverage of the memorializing of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Some are Fox News folks; some were watching CNN. Some are in semi-permanent boycott of the news. None of us could speak coherently about what would become of any health care reform legislation. Polarization seems much worse
Along the road we saw signs that a recession has been in progress. Many small towns had smaller populations and more empty buildings. Some seemed to be surviving better because of good crops brought on by plentiful rain. Plentiful grass tempted grazing cattle in New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. Not all oil wells are pumping, but all windmill farms had grown. Fewer travel trailers and motor homes appeared until the Wyoming border. Then it seemed the state was every traveler's destination.
Mile after mile after mile of road re-doing was our driving norm. The federal stimulus money is flowing out across the land in the form of asphalt overcoats for interstate highways, and small town main streets. Occasionally, some dollars went for curbs and sidewalks. We can assume the projects were items that were "shovel ready." Wyoming seems relatively unaffected by the recession. Colorado homebuilding seemed to have slowed a bit. Rural Texas has been hit hard, except for the big agribusiness acreages now planted largely to corn for fuel. Cattle feed lots are largely empty, but baby calves abound in most pastures. Wildlife was abundant: camels in the Panhandle, buffalo in Texas and Wyoming, prairie dog towns, healthy deer with big racks, antelope from Texas and New Mexico to Wyoming, and big fat Canadian geese cleaning seed from harvested grain fields.
Our family is rather tame so we do not qualify as wildlife. And now my siblings and I are the oldest members of our family. Our parents are no longer with us. My dad's birthday would have been today. Natives of Wyoming and Nebraska, respectively, my dad and mom loved the wide open spaces of both Texas and Wyoming. And now they are at rest on a hill that looks west to the Rockies.
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Family. Ha. Great little travelogue. I assume there is more here and you simply wish to keep the post short.
MAYBE MORE TO COME?
What did you see, what did you feel? I love posts like this.
Much more interesting than a graph.
I live in an area that has been depressed for decades. I watch the buildings crumble and people doing the best they can. In the old days towns grew up on rivers. Then the train routes. Of course nothing but water here. 10,000 lakes and all.
But the old downtown is all but dead and the activity is all centered around the main freeway.
I love this post.
September 2, 2009 6:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
DD, you see behind my lines.
Thanks for adding your own economic report in the comment. I would guess that the stuff on your main freeway is just as homogenized as the stuff in Casper, Denver, Amarillo and south. But it is the "people doing the best they can" that gives every town its heart. I loved that paragraph.
Maybe I'll expand on these truck trip thoughts, if you'd like. Thanks for the suggestion and the kind words.
September 2, 2009 10:35 PM | Reply | Permalink