After leaving South America (and en route to South Africa) I stopped in the United States to spend some time with family and friends before the next leg of my journey. While there, my dad talked me into a father-daughter cross-country road trip to visit family in Montana and my childhood home in Ohio.
For my return trip from Ohio to Chicago, I took the bus.
I spent hundreds of hours on South American buses so I’d like to see what North American buses have to offer. Overall, I’ll give it a good review. No food, blankets, or movies – but I did have a comfy seat and a working bathroom!
More importantly, I got to spend a week on the highways of the USA remembering how beautiful my country is. It’s so easy to forget, when traveling around the world and seeing amazing places, that the United States is full of so many diverse and beautiful places as well. There’s a reason (actually many) that inspired the song “America the Beautiful" -- spacious skies, purple mountains, amber waves of grain. . .I was lucky enough to see just a few of those reasons during my road trip.
While driving along I-94 through North Dakota, all of a sudden, you find yourself surrounded by fields of sunflowers. Stunning.
The plains of eastern Montana sometimes feel like a step back in time.
The mountains and rivers of western Montana are always near and dear to my heart. The beauty of these tree-covered mountains rival any others I’ve seen.
Western Montana is also home to a quiet grove of huge cedar trees. Standing over 175 feet high and many around 8 feet in diameter, these 200 year-old trees will make you feel the size and timelessness of nature.
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| My Two Favorite Guys Dwarfed by a Cedar Tree |
Somehow, there’s even beauty in a lake created by an open pit copper mine in Southern Montana. This lake is a half-mile wide and nearly 1800 feet deep and filled with heavily acidic water full of heavy metals and dangerous chemicals. And yet it makes for a beautiful, if toxic, sight.
The Badlands of South Dakota are otherworldly with their craggy peaks and ribbons of colored rock. Photos don’t do them justice!
In Minnesota and Indiana, even wind turbines, with their slow graceful motion, are soothing and quietly beautiful. Like an army of thin, white soldiers standing at attention.
But, of course, one can always count on the US to mix a whole lot of beauty with a little bit of bizarre. In southern Minnesota, in the town of Blue Earth, we saw a sign advertising a 60 foot Jolly Green Giant. What? It turns out that this town grows corn and green beans for the Green Giant label and are proud of the work they do.
In 1978, Interstate 90 (the longest interstate in the US, joining the east and west coasts) was completed. They were building it from the two coasts and it met right here in southern Minnesota. To commemorate the completion of Interstate 90 this giant homage to the world's "largest" vegetable fan was erected. Only in America!
It’s all too easy to take for granted the beauty we have right in our backyard. So often the tourists have seen more of what a place has to offer than the locals. Don’t forget the fun and beauty right around the corner. . .go out and see America the beautiful.
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