Thursday, October 9, 2008

A Belt of Corn

So. Apparently, in my recent posts about heading East last fall, from the Oregon Coast to Connecticut's, I wrote that we were in Nevada here . . .

. . . when, actually, this juniper . . .

. . . and this view . . .

. . . and this camping scene, under the junipers, were actually in Wyoming. Thankfully, we've got Mistah Schleckah around, he who takes the photos, and more importantly, remembers where he took them.

So, Wyoming. We hit downtown Cheyenne, the state capital, on a Saturday morning . . .

. . . and discovered a farmers' market. With amazing produce . . .

. . . and amazing Wyoming characters. With amazing guts.

And then we headed even further East. Into Nebbie.

Nebraska's a beautiful state. (I know, I know: I don't think I've ever written any state's not "a beautiful state".)

Lots of roads on our travels look just like this -- the proverbial Road to Nowhere, with no one else around.

We had one of the best by-the-side-of-the-road-picnics EVER in Nebbie.

I think Nebbie can just speak for itself for a while here . . .






I mean really. You can't make this stuff up.

Everywhere you look it looks like a Great Plains movie set.

We take a lot of photos of package stores. (What da heck is "pop"?)

You drive by a lot of cornfields out there in Nebbie-land.

Aaaahhhhh. The Corn.

A lot of people get bored driving through the corn. I find it mesmerizing and intoxicating and, well, beautiful.

We crossed into Iowa, and found a great place to camp, and watched the full moon rise. Mistah headed down the steep, muddy bank toward the water for the money shot, and almost went ass-over-teakettle.
.
But he got the shot -- the one we used for our Christmas card photo last year.

One of the many many things that makes it such fun camping with Mistah Schleckah is he does stuff like this. Takes double exposures with the camera. Manually. While I drink wine and read and ignore him watch him gad about.

Oh. And he makes a kick-ass fire, too.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mmm-hmmm. I think traveling the blue roads means prettier scenery.

Your pics of Nebraska almost -- almost! -- make me forget the jingoism that was so apparent there when I took the girls to Lincoln for a fencing tournament. In 2007.

(And you were kidding about the pop, right?) (And "package store" -- such an east coast term!)

Me, You, or Ellie said...

My girl learned a song in Kindergarten that went:

corn, corn, corn, it makes me feel forlorn...

As you can imagine, we break into it every time the cob hits our table.

Nebbie, huh?

Jacquie

Pickles and Dimes said...

Oh, there you go, being all dead to me again. Pop is POP. Not soda, POP. :)

Hey, when the top of the van is all propped up, what does it do? Is there a bed in there or something? It looks interesting.

Me, You, or Ellie said...

That's our Master Bedroom up there.

Hmmmm.... I smell a Westy House Tour post coming.....

--Ellie

Unknown said...

Great pictures and nice double-exposure. Now I have that Talking Heads song stuck in my head.

Kat said...

Since moving to the midwest I have started calling soda, pop. A couple of summers ago when I went home for a month, I asked my mom to get me a can of pop and she looked at me like I had grown a third eye on my face. "What the hell is pop?"

Anonymous said...

Lovely post, Ellie. Lovely.

Makes me want to get the hell out of the city. Makes me want to go to Aurora, New York to drink pop and eat freshly grown corn.

P.S. I can't believe you lied to us about Nevada!

Springer Kneeblood said...

Dammit! Now you've gone and done it. I didn't want to want to go to Nebraska...but now I can't not want to go.

Captain Dumbass said...

Nevada, Wyoming, whatever. They were still nice pictures.

martyjoco said...

Beth! Aurora, NY! We LOVE Aurora NY!! PD was born up there (well, Ithaca) and spent his childhood making annual happy summer visits to Wells and Lake Cayuga, and we try to swing by at least every year or two. In a word: Idyllic. (Perhaps a tiny bit over-polished lately by the "American Girl" doll woman who bought most of the lakeside properties and tried to turn it into an American Girl Disneyworld... but still lovely, and we understand she is on her way out...). This is one of those 1-degree of separation things, isn't it?! Cornfields and sunflower fields... kind of the upstate NY version of Nebbie. But with water.

Nanny Goats In Panties said...

Wow those are some fabulous pics. You say, what's "pop". I say, what's a nebbie? I've never heard that nickname before. Do the locals call it that, or have I been sleeping in a cave too long? Do they call Montana, Monty?

Me, You, or Ellie said...

Why Martyjoco, how crazy is that? I was born in Aurora (well, not really, as its too small to have a hospital, but I was born in nearby Auburn, NY). Aurora is my hometown. And it is idyllic. A terrific place to spend your childhood.

My mom (re)bought a house there a few years back, so I've been spending some time there each summer, introducing my own kids to the wonders of the village.

I actually have an Aurora post coming up, and my mom is going to guest blog regarding Aurora as well.

Stay tuned!

P.S. I love Ithaca.

Beth

KG said...

I love the photo in the dark of the tree!

Also - um - I write every week how each state is not a beautiful state in my Totally Incensed Tuesday post. Not to whore my stuff out over here, but just thought I'd share.

NucMEd is Hot said...

Pop-Like soda only ...it's exactly like soda because it is. It's a midwestern thing.