The drive up was amazing and I'm glad to have done it! It would be a strange thing to move this far away and not be aware of how far it truly is (just under 4,000 miles from Louisville to Anchorage!). I didn't stop nearly as often as I will next time I drive that route :).
The first 2,000 miles (Indiana, Illionois, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Manitoba and Alberta!) looked pretty similar. As far as the eye could see: fields of any grain or bean you can imagine, lovely old farmhouses and barns, huge blue skies and the long straight road ahead. I did lots of thinking here, and was perfectly reminded of my favorite poemprayer.
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EPIPHANY, by Pem Kremer
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Lynn Schmidt says
she saw You once as prairie grass,
Nebraska prairie grass.
She climbed out of her car on a hot highway
leaned her butt on the nose of her car,
looked out over one great flowing field,
stretching beyond her sight until the horizon came:
vastness, she says,
responsive to the slightist shift of wind,
full of infinite change,
all One.
She says when she can't pray
She calls up Prairie Grass.
In Western Alberta and British Columbia, things got a bit more hilly. The pines started creeping in, and lots of gorgeous yellow-leafed trees like aspens, that I'd see for the rest of the drive.
Next was British Columbia and the Yukon Territory, where at times, I didn't see anybody but buffalo or coyotes for 100's of miles... I drove through the Muskwa-Kechika, the largest protected wilderness in B.C., which someone told me is second only to the Seregeti in size and animal diversity! I believe it.
she saw You once as prairie grass,
Nebraska prairie grass.
She climbed out of her car on a hot highway
leaned her butt on the nose of her car,
looked out over one great flowing field,
stretching beyond her sight until the horizon came:
vastness, she says,
responsive to the slightist shift of wind,
full of infinite change,
all One.
She says when she can't pray
She calls up Prairie Grass.
In Western Alberta and British Columbia, things got a bit more hilly. The pines started creeping in, and lots of gorgeous yellow-leafed trees like aspens, that I'd see for the rest of the drive.
Next was British Columbia and the Yukon Territory, where at times, I didn't see anybody but buffalo or coyotes for 100's of miles... I drove through the Muskwa-Kechika, the largest protected wilderness in B.C., which someone told me is second only to the Seregeti in size and animal diversity! I believe it.
Baby buffalo and family.
Stone sheep and Stone Mountain.
In B.C., I stayed at the Northern Rockies Lodge, which I completely recommend. Read about them at www.northern-rockies-lodge.com
First snow, last photo on the camera!
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