Nebraska: as flat as you can get, some parts to the point of boring. Other parts, simply fascinating!!! There is this wild west feel to this state. Barren, extremely windy and almost freezing. Small trees with twisted branches and very few leafs, a lot of dirt and brown grass... lots of bare tree trunks either still standing or fallen over and white from the winds. Every now and then there would be a surprise though, like a sculpture of a howling coyote on a rare hill.. :) Lots of cows, it actually stank of cow farms in many places. I almost expected to see a whitened skeleton of a cow or buffalo alongside of the road. That state surely has a feel about it. And I certainly felt the feel each time I had to fuel up!!! It was freezing, right through your bones freezing, and the wind whipped my hair about so that I could barely see what I'm doing. I chatted with one of the roadside store sales people. They say that's normal, and when it snows, it looks like a blizzard. :). Why would anybody want to live there???
Wyoming: that was something!!! Another very big state length wise, so it took me forever to drive through! It had plains too, but it was all different! Dessert like! And I'd drive for miles and miles without anything, no gas, no rest stop, nothing... Just bare flats and hills with dark green and small bushes in them, all over. Or sometimes just brown grass. All fenced up with very homemade looking fences :). I saw herds of small and adorable gazelles. First thought that maybe people raise them too, I mean who knows, but then I saw they are wild. So cute! All other roads I saw were dirt roads, with a wall of dust behind each car that went by. I generally tried to avoid human contact, because keys face it... I didnt look my freshest. My hair is a disaster!!! I desperately need a shower... Man, somebody invent a portable and foldable one that fits in a purse??? But anyway, I needed water so I stopped by this one small roadside store. What a quaint place!!! A tiny mart that sells everything, from guns to lollipops with scorpions in them (I got one as a souvenir) and plays old elvis songs. So queer.. But super friendly! Got to chat with the locals and suddenly, with my scarecrow hair I felt like I'm fitting in :). Lol!!! They call the plastic bag a 'sack' :)!!! As I was nearing the west side of the state, some rocky red mountains began to appear until they became the most amazing and stunning walls of rock!!!! And so incredibly close too! I could see the flood layers on some, and they had most fantastic shapes! Really grand, so much that I stopped to take pics of one. And stopping by isn't an easy thing there. The speed limit is 75 and most go 80 and up, as there is no police there; at least I haven't seen a single police car. My picture taking was mostly from the car, sometimes rather daring activity, for going 75 in a windy road, taking pics left and right and trying to stay in line was sometimes challenging :). The road was mostly straight, only at the end it got curvy and felt a bit like I'm driving in a canyon. Driving and sightseeing is rather difficult too. Especially when there is yet another and another breathtaking view with each turn... So the mountains were getting crazier and I went to Utah, and that's where the fun began :):):)!!!
Utah: what craziness!!!!! The mountains all of a sudden got covered with green stuff rather than being bare and red, and became sloppier rather than rough and sharp edged. But they also came so close together from both sides of the road, nearly claustrophobic! And the road was elevated with canyons on each side and extremaly twisted. With everyone going super fast it became a life size roller coaster!!!! I was beginning to get concerned and actually slowed down considerably, and stopped taking pictures. Didnt care for the gorgeous scenery anymore, I just didn't want to go over the ramp and fall who knows how deep... It got really crazy! And we kept climbing too! And finally, one enormous climb, where my car had to slow down to 50 to keep on climbing and I put it on 4th gear to help. The moment we got on top a most wonderful sight appeared, as if from a christmasy postcard from Switzerland! Among the mountains a village appears, with all houses looking like snow cottages and all other buildings like ski lodges. I wonder if that's what they were actually, because all the billboards were about skiing. But all resembling log cabins, with that specific architecture! And it was dusk, so the lights were already shinning and the sky was reddish and purple. A perfect idyllic picture. It was only lacking snow! :). But I'm glad it had none, because past the village we began another crazy roller coaster down the hill. And I almost got scared. And all the messages about chain tires and deaths and the break checking station didn't help either. It was an insanely steep flight down!!!! And the surface was weird too... Made my breaks act funny. Stunning scenery (still claustrophobic grand mountains on both sides!) with blood pumping experience. I just couldn't understand why everyone goes so fast down that roller coaster.... So then I hit salt lake city, which was another sight to behold... Amazing! And I drove right along side of the lake for a little while, which actually eventually became a drag and it sort of stank... Hmmm. Anyway, I'm full of today's grandiose sights and adventures. Tomorrow I'll have the joy of going through Nevada, entering Cali and meeting Dick and my roomies in person :).
And here is a pic of Nebraska plains:
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