September 21

Before heading out of town, I worked for a couple of hours at Owen's...a real soda fountain/general store that has free wifi. I drove to another rest area in Washington to test our systems. I don't mind the drive, because the scenery is beautiful and the air is cool. Then I got my boots shined, washed my car, and made a return to Home Depot in Spokane. I ended up at my uncle's farm in Chattaroy Washington. It's an old homestead with rolling hills and forests. When I drove up the drive, there were cattle and chickens and dogs. The house smelled wonderful, and we had a feast of nearly a dozen fresh home grown vegetables and a roast. Wayne, my uncle, took me and a couple of my cousins on a walk in the twilight. There are dozens of wild apple and plum trees on the property, and we ate them right off of the tree. When we came back to the house, we all sat around a warm fire while my cousin's kids wrestled and played.

The world needs cities, and cities need rural environments, but I think much of America doesn't connect with nature anymore. Mankind needs a connection to the earth to be balanced. Nature calms adults and provides wonder to children. My most vivid childhood memories are of woods, and rivers, and mountains, and road trips, and farms, and building forts with my buddies in the trees. If we want to save this world, create a society of environmentally conscious citizens, and give young generations a respect and awe for creation, we must return to nature. We need a national effort to bring nature to our children. Let's create more urban community and school gardens. Let's fund public service announcements encouraging parents to take plant gardens with their kids. Let's give free passes to every citizen to visit and camp at a state or national park. Let's create city farms, on the outskirts of towns, that grow with citizen participation and are a laboratory for local schools...wouldn't it be great if every school kid had even one day a year where he and his classmates worked on a farm?

Maybe it's a silly idealistic notion momentarily in my head because I was eating wild plums today and the biggest priority of everyone here is to gather wood to heat their homes as the cold winter approaches. I don't think it's silly, though...just maybe idealistic.

The long drive...

On a Saturday morning (September 8th), I left Austin. I drove all day for three days. On Monday night, I arrived. Priest River, Idaho.

Day 1

I pulled out of Austin at about 8 in the morning. While I wanted to make good time, I had a mission to stop at several specific rest areas in Texas on my "way out." Have you ever stopped at a rest area? Most of them fit the the probable image you have in your mind, but nationally there is a trend to change that. Rest areas are being renovated, torn down, and rebuilt. In the new ones, visitors find all sorts of amenities and interactive displays showcasing the local area. Rest Areas' number one purpose is to make highways safer. Over 50 million stops are made at TX rest areas annually. My company, among other things, builds wireless Internet systems in Rest Areas. The idea is that our service is one more reason to get drivers who have been on the road for a while pull of and take a break. After spending so much time driving the last three days, I am grateful for rest areas...I just wish they all had Internet access like TX does! Here are a couple of pictures of a newly renovated rest area in North Texas.




Along the way, I stopped at a gas station and went in to buy some gum and use the bathroom. While I was selecting my gum, I overheard a conversation between two cashiers behind the counter. One was a young man, I would have guessed in his late teens. The other was a middle aged woman. To my astonishment, the young man began to talk about his time in Iraq. "How could I believe in a God that would let me be over there, shooting at children? I just don't believe in God. If there was one, how could he have us doing something so wrong?" The woman responded, "I don't have the answers, but you're only 25 and you have life ahead of you to find redemption." He answered, "how can I be redeemed by something I don't believe in?"

I paid the woman for my gum and a single lottery ticket. I didn't win the lottery, but I feel rich in a lot of ways.

Day 2

I spent the night in Dumas, TX. That night there was a tremendous thunderstorm. When I left the Days Inn on Sunday morning, it was in the 50's! Sometimes I forget what September is like for much of the country. In Austin, it's still hot and muggy, but up in the corner of our own state the nights get a little cooler and the sense that something subtle is happening in the environment is evident. I was invigorated, which was good since i had another long drive alone that day.

Thank God for XM radio, my ipod, and the cool gauges in my car. While I drive, I get to survey God's magnificent creation AND try to make my Hybrid Honda get amazingly high gas mileage...I watch the numerous gauges while I subtly toy with the gas pedal in expert fashion, adjusting for varying inclines and curves in the road. My iPod is...well, it's amazing. I have so much music on that little dude that I haven't even heard all of the songs on it...set it to shuffle and there's hours of surprise. Lastly, my car has XM radio and satellite navigation. On it's sizeable screen, I toggle between news, talk, music (of every imaginable genre), sports, weather, and comedy. Then I press a button on my steering wheel and the screen switches to the map that not only talks to me but lets me search for whatever type of food I might be craving on the road. And it's not even a fancy car...I'm sure that my children will think it's as unimaginable that I marvel at the Civic as I find it that my dad was born before television.




The world got progressively more beautiful after leaving Dumas that morning. The sky was dark with clouds, the wind was strong. The air was lonely for me and the occasional car that passed on the quiet Northwest Texas plains. From countless drives in the past, I knew that I would start to get a feeling of anticipation and freedom as I approached Raton New Mexico. The first of many mountain passes on this route lies between Raton New Mexico and Trinidad Colorado. I feared my little Honda would have trouble with the climbs, but it proved to be more than adequate and much better, in fact, than the numerous VW vans that my family used to make the journey in. I stopped for gas in Raton, anxious to drive over the threshold of the mountain pass into a new territory.



Through rain and road construction, I flew at some times and slogged at others. I passed Denver and climbed up through the ever elevating hilly plains and mountains.

Here's a picture of a chilly downtown Cheyenne...



I made it all the way to Sheridan Wyoming that night. It was chilly and dark outside. The cheap motels were taken up by other travelers weary of the cold rain, so I had to pay $125 to stay at a Holiday Inn. The bed was amazing, though. There was free high speed Internet.

Day 3

The air was crisp and cool and the skies clear. I embarked on the last leg of my journey after making a few phone calls and sending a few emails. The scenery seemed to become more beautiful every hour. I began to see snow capped peaks.




I crossed more mountain passes and the Continental Divide. I-90 between Missoula Montana and Couer D'Alene Idaho is one of the prettiest stretches of highway in the world. I stopped to take my first picture of Idaho.




I approached Priest River at dusk. I pulled into the drive at the farm. It looked the same as always...maybe better than the last time I was here. Flowers, green lawn, cows in the pasture. This is just what I needed.