From Mountains to the Plains

      I used to sing "...for purple mountain majesty, above the fluted pains."   I wasn't sure what a "fluted pain" was but that's what the song said.  Today we drove out of the purple mountains and onto the fruited plains.  There was so much smoke in the mountains, that by the Fort Morgan rest stop where we first saw the snow capped Rockies on the way west, today we only saw gray haze.  

     The drive through Denver on this early Saturday morning was quiet.  We quickly got into range country where I expected to see The Lone Ranger chasing outlaws and cowboys herding cattle.  He was making a new movie,though, I hear.  Mostly the cowboys were in pickups and on ATV's which really changes the picture when it is a cowboy without a horse.  The guys on ATV's did have a herding dog, though.  For all the folks my age it brings back Saturday morning westerns on TV.  Since I am always pretty flaky after a while on the road I wanted to do some cowboy yodeling like Roy and Dale Rogers.  In deference to my tired sidekick I just hummed a little.

     We are below 5000 feet for the first time in several weeks.  We were both fairly adjusted to the altitude and didn't pant when we walked more than ten steps in Denver, but it still feels good to get a full lung of oxygen.  Central Nebraska is green.  Really green, not dusty, dry, ready to burn green.  When we stopped for lunch we realized that we were experiencing humidity for the first time in weeks, as well.  Colorado has had humidity below 10% for weeks.  My skin is so dry I look like an old turtle.  The worst thing is that fires are flaring up everywhere in the west.  Most of the area that we drove through near the Sand Dunes park, Mesa Verde, and our three train trips has all been closed off and on due to fires. We are lucky to have traveled there while it was still a bit green.

      We stopped for the night in a quiet spot under huge cottonwood trees along the Platte River.  Shortly after setting up at our Nebraska campground, the sky turned dark and we got hailed on big time.  Our camper shell is fiberglass so it would take a lot to dent, but I worried about our car.  We will have to see, but it looks like the tree may have slowed down the hail so it didn't hit the car too hard.   It is in the 90's and humid so we will have our first night with the windows closed and the air on.  The rain stopped so we sat out for a while and the Mosquitos discovered me - I didn't miss them in Colorado.  Strong storms are predicted for the next couple days.  I hope that everyone at home in the Twin Cities is safe and dry.  It looks like we are heading home to quite the aftermath of storms.  Tomorrow we will be back in Iowa!