“O beautiful, for spacious skies”

Like the previous posting, what follows was written in a hotel room, in Pine Falls Manitoba on Saturday evening, the 19th. Not even the manager of the establishment had access to the internet ...

I have come to a momentous conclusion. “America the Beautiful” was not written for or about the east coast. It’s a hymn, the first three lines of verse one in particular, written about the Midwest, about the country Tal and I are traversing. The grain is amber and it does undulate in great waves across the landscape. When I’m not driving, I am mesmerized by its movement. And, the skies are horizon-to-horizon spacious. I cannot even begin to tell you how beautiful it all is. The hymn’s opening declaration of “O beautiful” is understatedly appropriate. This land is big and open and profoundly humbling.

Yesterday was our long driving day and we were plenty tired by the time we arrived at the hotel in Watertown SD at 8:00 or so. But, the farmers were still on tractors at that hour. There was still plenty of daylight. When I opened the drapes this morning between 5:30 and 6:00, it was again daylight and the farmer directly across the road from the hotel was bringing the dairy cows in for milking.

Today the vastness continued as we made our way across the Dakotas, along the valley of the Red River. The wheat was replaced by other crops and given the sugar refineries along the interstate (which parallels the railroad, by the way), I would guess that crop to be sugar beets. These folks here have had lots of rain. Everywhere the waterways are swollen out of their banks and many fields are, for a time anyway, play grounds for waterfowl. And the wind has been relentless. Tal has heard somewhere that in the winter the only thing between the Arctic wind and this land is a barbed wire fence! Today’s wind, from the southeast not the Arctic, blew without any letup at all.

Interestingly, most interstate interchanges are not built up with gas stations and fast food restaurants. One would surmise low population plays a part in that, not to mention the long hours we've seen people working. (Yes, we have had to search for fuel, but only once. When we found a station Tal put 16.5 gallons in an 18 gallon tank. Whew!) On the other hand, casinos and gaming operations abound, but not at the interchanges. While Harrahs is a predominant name; my personal favorite is “Winnavegas”.

We crossed into Canada without incident, made our way around Winnipeg (not THROUGH this year) and are staying the night in Pine Falls, just beyond Traverse Bay at the mouth of the Winnipeg River. We will cross the Powerview Dam in the morning as we drive to Bissett and make ready for our Monday morning flight to Shining Falls Lodge on Family Lake in the Atikaki Provincial Park.