Every I go to the Open Source Convention that is usually held in Portland, Oregon. In 2004 I decided to make it a road trip. Is a little more then 2200 miles from my home in Houston, Texas to Portland. That is long enough to spend a whole week getting there. A great excuse for a roadtrip.
This first leg of the trip was due north. After a late start I got to Oklahoma the first night. The start of a trip is always exciting, so I was up and on the road early the next morning. The first picture is a tree by the highway just after dawn.
The second day I got off the interstate onto roads that were closer to the country I was traveling through. Road trips ar a great way to see. Interstate highways are great for getting place to place, but minor highways have a better view. On the smaller roads it is easier to see the land and the towns are actually visable. I continued north through Kanas and took a left at Lincoln, Nebraska. I think I found these flowers next to highway 2 somewhere west of Lincoln.
Things change much more slowly in the country. I was following the path that the cattle followed from Texas to Nebraska. Change is visable in this area, but it seems to be slower. Most of the scene in the ranch picture would be familiar to the Buffalo and the Native Americans that lived alongside them. After some time the barbed-wire fence came to split things up and allow more control. Then came the windmill came to solve problems related to getting water to the smaller, more controlled pastures. Then they build loading structures to get livestock on trucks to take them to market. The first change causes problems that can be solved with more change. It has been that way forever. It seems like slow and steady, with some time to think, is about the right pace.
Traveling cross country these days you have to pay attention to see the rivers. The road goes over them almost like they are not there. That is a fairly recent wonder of the modern age. My grandfather grew up near Austin, Texas and lived in Beaumont, Texas. He could tell stories about the trip bettwen those cites taking two or three days, depending on the stage of the Trinity river. Today the 250 mile trip takes about four hours. The big difference is that whe have better bridges now. I saw the Bryan Bridge while traveling on highway 20 in Nebraska. It is a good example of the difference between modern and historic bridges. Compared to the bridge on 20 it is short, low and narrow. Crossing it you cannot escape the fact that you are crossing a river. The bridge on 20 is the same width as the highway and it is long enough to span the whole valley created by the river. Driving on 20 there are no clues that the bridge you are crossing is any different then any other section of highway.
This Bryan Bridge was saved by changing the course of the highway and building a new bridge in a different spot. I am glad the highway department did so.
Fort Robinson State Park is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. It was a army outpost when Nebraska was part of the frontier. It does not seem like the conversion to a state park has changed anything. Many of the buildings are still used in something related to their original purpose. All of the things you expect to see in a frontier outpost are still there. It looks like you are in a movie set. Since it is now a state park you don't have to be associated with the army to stay there. There are campsites where campsites should be in an outpost like this. Many of the residential buildings can be rented for groups.
I can't imagine a better headquarters building for a state park then the one here. It even has a full service restaurant in place of the mess hall.
Trains carrying coal east from Wyoming ran beside the highway for much of the way through Nebraska. I saw what is billed as the last surviving wooden water stop. It looked like a good subject for a picture. I got lucky on timing and got a modern locomotive in the shot.
Sometimes it is hard to imagine what life was like for the people living just a century ago. I certainly cannot see myself working in a mine in a remote vally in Montana. The work was as hard or harder then any I have done. There would have not been a climate controlled place to rest. Anything like entertainment would have been miles away in the nearest town. A trip of 20 or 30 miles to town would take longer then the half hour we are used to. I glad that people worked in places like this to build the modern world we live in. It sure is nice to not have to do that now.
The nicest place I stayed on this trip was a National Forrest campground on a river in Idaho. It was a place to park the truck with a bathhouse down the road. I pitched my tent just up the bank from the river. The spot was very nice.
The understory in the forrest had a lot of ferns. That is not something that I see much on the gulf coast of Texas.
If you drive far enough west you find the ocean. The pacific northwest is very nice. The high parts of the land go all the way to the edge of the water. There are more rocks and less sand on the shore then I see in Texas.
I was lucky and got to the shore during a very low tide. It was a great time to study the parts that normally lie under the sea.
Then I made it to Portland and OSCON. It was great, as always. Then there was the trip home. I went south to LA and took a right on IH10. It was a great trip. I found that there is a Beaumont, Califorinia as well as a Beaumont, Texas. About 1500 miles apart on IH10. I cannot imagine how long that trip would have taken before the interstate was built.