Back to Flyover Country

Evening Campers! It's Silver Cliche' here with you again tonight.. .this time from the Cornhusker State... Nebraska... specifically from Maloney Reservoir State Recreation Area just south of North Platte.

So, we started the day in Rocky Mountain National Park. I owe you a couple of pics that would have been in yesterday's blog except for I decided to save the battery power for our furnace fan rather than your complete amusement. Excuuuuussssseeeee me if you think I chose poorly.

First, a view from the highest point in the park that is currently open... Rainbow Curve on Trail Ridge Road at a little over 10,500 feet:

 That slash across the mountain on the right side of the frame is Trail Ridge Road which we had just climbed. I would note that in many places the road has a very limited shoulder which leads to major dropoffs. It is so obviously dangerous that they have signs that say "Go ahead... text and drive... we dare you" and still you see nobody doing it. In response to Mrs. C's frequent declaration "there are no guardrails here... we're gonna die!" I looked up some history. It turns out that one translation of "Colorado" means "too few guardrails". Somehow people make it up and back and we did too.

I've mentioned the huge number of visitors RMNP gets in the summer. Yesterday afternoon after the movie was no summer rush. It was 4:00 when we headed back to let Romeo out for a walk. There was only one gate open, but there are only three total so the backup should have been nonexistent.  However, we waited about 10 minutes to get through. They have the most amazing view to help pass the time:

So, we got up and hit the road this morning. The last view we had of RNMP was this one in the side view mirror, contrasted with the flat terrain and increasing presence of agriculture as we move across the plains:

After that we were back in "flyover country". If you are not familiar with the term, it's often used by our country's elite (that would be the people who reside on the east and left coasts... if you didn't know that's where the "elite" live, just ask one of them... they'll set you straight) to describe places where the non-elite live. It refers to the fact that the American Neanderthals use a large amount of space and that makes the trip from LA to NY long and inconvenient. It is so long that some elites have even missed complete episodes of Rachael Maddow simply because a Gulfstream V at full speed still takes 30 minutes just to cross one of the stinking flyover states. You don't think the name is apt? Look at this:

 You could play tic-tac-toe using the vapor trails from those flying over. And while we are at it, on the ground in flyover country it feels like the elites are truly flying over. The flyers and the flyees both feel this phenomenon. Maybe I'm the only one, but I think the disdain and contempt embodied in the very phrase "flyover country" might have something to do with why Donald Trump is in the White House and Hillary Clinton is eying a stint on "The View" sitting next to Whoopie.

Anyhow, seeing flyover country up close is enough to have me considering trading the Airstream for a Cessna. This is the gritty, gutty core of America. In addition to signs of agriculture like irrigators, silos and such, there are signs of the energy economy everywhere. Like this:

 Out here, it's natural gas. No sign of the oil pumps tipping back and forth like in Texas. In eastern Colorado its all about gas exploration, drilling, collection and ultimately feeding into the pipeline system. Next stop: Your furnace, stove or clothes dryer!

By far the most "impressive" aspect of  today's drive were the feedlots. These are places where cattle are collected, fed, fattened and housed before being sent on a journey similar to the natural gas. Next stop: Grocery store! We may have seen 100,000 or 200,000 head of cattle today. If you stop and think about it, there is one product that cattle produce before they make roasts, steaks and burgers. That's right... the very same product manufactured in Congress. Lots of it. If you ever wondered where your local nursery gets that "organic fertilizer" that they recommend for new bushes I have your answer! The very first feed lot we came upon caught us by surprise. It was distinguished by three characteristics: 1.) it was the largest we saw all day and stretched for over a mile. 2.) it was very close to the interstate we were on (I-76 running northeast from Denver to the armpit of Nebraska and 3.) it was upwind from our route of travel. I tried to grab my phone from its cradle above the dash to get a picture. Unfortunately I was having a hard time driving and gagging at the same time. The pic had to wait. Here's a pic of a smaller feedlot that was downwind.

 This one only had many thousands of cattle... small potatoes out here.

So, we pressed on. There are several spots in the country where one state or another has a projection that is known as "the panhandle". Texas has one, Oklahoma has one, and Nebraska sort of has one on it's western end. What we don't have is a consistent term for the point where the panhandle meets the body of the state. In the case of Nebraska and Oklahoma, I'd  like to propose calling that point "the armpit". So we were letting I-76 take us to within a few miles of the Nebraska armpit where we would leave Colorado and enter Nebraska. Keeping in mind the fact that Colorado was the first state in the nation to legalize recreational marijuana, you need to recognize that anywhere an interstate highway leaves Colorado there is likely an amount of contraband heading into neighboring states. Places like Raton Pass where we entered the state from New Mexico come to mind. Today's Silver Cliche' Driving Experience comes to you from just after the Colorado/Nebraska border in what I call "smugglers alley":

 Marrakesh and the Brandenburg Gate have nothing on this place.

So finally we completed today's trek and landed just south of North Platte, Nebraska. Interesting place. North Platte is home to the largest rail freight yard in the country. It is also on the route of the Keystone XL pipeline and hosts a smaller pipeline already. Buffalo Bill Cody's home and ranch are here (if you've never studied the history, Buffalo Bill was a character much larger that life and larger than the Ringling Brother's who followed him with a variation on his theme.).

Here's a shot I took from our campsite on the shores of Maloney Reservoir just before the sun went down.

 OK, campers. That's it for tonight.

Later...

SC'