We been here…
…before! Déjà vu all over again, as Yogi said. I hate it when my wife is right. She’s always right. Damn! I pride myself on a photographic memory. Ha ha! I guess taking a lot of photos does not count.
As we entered the Airbnb, Colleen exclaimed, “We’ve stayed here before. All they did was move the bed! The layout is the same! They just moved the bed around.”
I was stunned and disagreed. I was wrong. It was the same funky bathroom shower that leaked all over the floor. Sure enough, November 2017, same place, same building. Actually, it was the same building, different apartment. And they added a fence to the front. I believe now that we were in an apartment on a higher floor. … same damn leaky shower. Dammit, I got the pictures that prove it!! Ha ha, different camera.
Driving across the US is an experience. It eventually hit 108 degrees on this day, and 1000 cattle died of exposure and thirst. People out there got different ideas… if you can understand the meaning. The beer is essentially the same, but different. It got better with time.
We crossed the country. We will do it again. There are kids in states across the US – NY, WV, CO, CA, and one NKA.
Casablanca – “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine” – Humphrey Bogart.
… she was right again. !!!
Poles
The plains states are flat. Yes, there are some rolling bumps you might call low hills. So, poles make a statement in the skyline. It’s harder to get an image. Any majestic landscape will minimize the poles. Any close-up covers up the majesty of the plains. Ah, the choices one makes…
Technology
I was struck by the juxtaposition of tech. A solar panel was powering an oil derrick against a background of wind turbines. Progress. The future. Symbolic. Symbolism. Irony. Mankind moving toward the future. What will our life be like when petroleum has gone? We have an elaborate road system. What will travel on it?
Fading
As the windmills capture renewable energy, it’s free right? You don’t own the wind? The old plains windmills are fading. I think they were used to pump water. You still see the quaint windmills and the farm houses one following the other. But now more and more they are dwarfed by progress. And with progress the family farm is fading into the industrial farming that requires big money and less risk. Nature prevails. And we leave behind the abandoned buildings that will gradually fall down.
Windmills of my mind
Windmill farms. It’s not traditional in the conventional sense of a farm. We are in tornado alley. How appropriate. The winds sweeping down the high plains… “Oklahoma…” (the Broadway song). There is a random planned layout I assume. It looks random to me but there is an engineer somewhere who decided on placement and spacing. The giant turbines sit in the fields of multiple use. Look closely. There is a tiny little water wheel mill dwarfed by the big ones. I assume it is worth the expense. At night the warning lights all blink simultaneously. That’s kind of spooky soothing. This is the future. Renewable energy. More?
photobackstory 