from near the mountains to the prairie to near the ocean white with foam

[lauradi7dw]

At the time my mother broke her leg, Jetblue was selling all the trips you want for three months to designated airports, for a large quantity of dollars. One of the airports included in the deal is RDU, the closest to my parents. At the time we worried that I might need to visit for several days a week, so after a lot of vacillating, I bought the pass. It has turned out that my parents are more self-sufficient than we thought, and they have hired help for a few hours most days, so I've been going there a little less than once every couple of weeks. I'm not sure the pass has paid for itself, although convenience should count - one can book at nearly the last minute if there is space on the plane (90 minutes notice) and change or cancel under the same time frame without incurring a fee. Most of the places included are east coast-ish, although not Orlando or Tampa (where Arthur has relatives), and the deal ends very deliberately 3 days before Thanksgiving. There are some weird outliers, though. One of those is Denver. I don't think of myself as having a bucket list per se, but I have over time been working up to collecting all 50 states. I looked on some maps, and realized that a short trip to Denver airport + a lot of driving of a rental car could get me Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska, so after a lot of thought, I did it. I flew to Denver yesterday, drove eight hours in an oblong, spent the night at a noisy Motel 6, jogged this morning wearing my heart-rate monitor to see whether the altitude in Aurora, CO (not quite 6000 feet) is enough to bump up my HR (the answer seems to be yes), and came home. I had planned to study for the four hours in the air each way, but did rather less than that. I could see mountains from the Denver area, but headed east instead, and drove for hours past mostly farms in all three state. Big farms. Horizon to horizon farms in some cases, although it's hard to know. Also some grassland (prairie?). Saw cattle & sheep & buffalo (farmed) and deer grazing in the grass (additionally saw some cattle in feedlots, probably getting ready to die). Saw crops I recognized and some I didn't and fields that had been finished with for the season. I had had the mental image of Kansas as flat, but it isn't entirely. There are rolling hills and stony areas as well, in the parts of all three states I visited. Bits of it even reminded me of Scotland, although the plants were different. I stopped at local small-town parks in each state, and pulled over at this historical/artistic site that happened to be along my planned route, and signed the guest book.
http://www.kansastravel.org/cherrycreekencampment.htm
I hardly talked to anybody, just me and the car for hours and miles, so I don't know anything more about Coloradans or Nebraskans or Kansans (?) than I already did, really, except that they listen to NPR and country music and some radio stations that feature nothing but Jesus. (The car radio worked well). When I asked at the motel desk for jogging suggestions this morning, she said "up and down the stairs," apparently unable to imagine outdoor use of the local area. As it happened, there were neighborhoods nearby, with sidewalks throughout, and the high school track seemed to be open to the public as well.
46 down, 4 to go (South Dakota, Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi).