Life, Studio and Gallery Musings, 17
It’s a goat rodeo! Time to head west and see the grandkids. It’s been more than a year. We will wear masks; take out food; wash our hands a lot; quarantine; and get tested. It’s worth it.
Leo is with us. He has been a great traveler.
I thought we would listen to books along the way but we have been looking out the window and talking about what we see. So many things to google and wonder about. We do live in a special place – the United States. One of our first stops was at a rest stop talking about the path that the Mormons took to get west.
I think about the courage to head West on horses, in wagons, and on foot. Little knowledge about what path to follow or if there was a path. Would we be that brave today? I wonder.
I am mostly Dutch. In West Michigan, we have the city of Holland with it’s windmill from the Old Country. It is still used to grind grain. As we continue through Iowa. We see many wind turbines. Did you know that the State of Iowa has 42% of its electricity generated from these turbines? Second only to Texas. We debated whether they are an eye sore. We did agree that the old fashioned windmills are not. We also considered whether farms in the distance were distractions to the landscapes.
Then, we begin to see windmills used for pulling water out of the ground for feeding cattle or watering crops. As we drive, we see that there are many still working today.
Both beautiful in their own way.
We pass Iliff, Colorado and wonder about the name. I google it and and learn that James Michener used this community as fodder for his book, Centennialhttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_(novel), a fictional geography of Colorado. Michener’s Venneford Ranch was based on the Iliff Ranch of the 1880s which included the Buttes and the Chalk Bluffs as well as the present day town of Hereford. The 1978 Centennial filming by Universal Studios utilized the Phipps Ranch now Highlands Ranch in Douglas County as the set for Venneford Ranch. These and other comparisons are used to demonstrate that Michener’s book is essentially a geographic novel focusing on Northeastern Colorado as a place.
Along the way I find art – always art in our lives if you look.
A long two days but interesting. We made it to Denver. On to Santa Fe tomorrow. Oh, Leo likes the blue skies. Take good care, C2
