Views from American highways

 

Bob Anderson in Albuquerque pointing out the area near the mountains where US nukes are stored underground. If Albuquerque was a country it would have the 3rd largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world.

 

Wind turbines alongside oil drilling rigs in Texas

Chemtrails often filled the skies

 

 

Cows

Old hay barn

The highway from hotel window in Fishkill, NY

Love the chimney

Someone planted that tree years ago

A very old 'tiny house'

The nuclear museum outside Kirtland AFB in New Mexico

We hit snow in Maryland and points north

Loved this old time convenience store

Christmas tree farm

St Joe, Texas in the famous Red River Valley where cattle drives flourished. Two women opened their otherwise closed cowboy museum for us on a Sunday.

 

Near the famous Civil War battlefield

Penny's Diner in Brunswick, Maryland

Covered bridge in rural New York

 

Mary Beth and I left Maine on December 20. We returned on January 18. During our long journey we visited family and friends (and did site seeing) in Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, New Mexico, Alabama and North Carolina before heading home.

It was a wild ride.

We drove on country back roads whenever possible in order to avoid the interstate highways that are dominated by metastasized trucks and drivers pretending they are in a Daytona 500 rat race.

The double-long heavy trucks now allowed on the highways are helping to punch dangerous pot holes in the roads.  The trucking companies have forced Congress to relax regulations in size and weight of trucks. Most weight inspection stations on interstate highways we passed were closed.

The food at motorway stops is routinely bad as most people know. Many toilets are filthy. Homelessness is rampant - I once saw homeless tents in the middle of a hotel parking lot.

The worst roads we experienced were in Illinois and the best were in Texas. Most states have roads that need serious work but they have no available funds. Texas also surprisingly had tons of solar and wind farms - sometimes mixed with oil drilling rigs.

Many workers in corporate chain gas stations, convenience stores, restaurants, hotels and the like we came across were not particularly friendly and obviously were not loving their get-no-where jobs. America is all about about low-wage workers these days. This is likely why Washington is allowing so many immigrants easy entry into the country. They want to drive wages down even further.

Poverty is by and large advancing across the nation like a bad dream. 

Military bases were evident in most directions we traveled. While we were in Montgomery, Alabama several Air Force fighter-bombers flew just over the Lynching Museum that we were visiting. One of the security guards ducked and said he needed to hide or die. It was clear in that moment that the black security guard did not regard the roaring planes as the 'sound of freedom'. 

How can there ever be any money left for human and environmental needs across the nation when Washington ensures that the war machine always eats first?

In spite of all these challenges it was a great trip. We had wonderful visits with family and friends and were repeatedly moved by the natural beauty.

Lucky for us we had no bad weather when driving. While many parts of the nation had severe storms we escaped them. Just one time in Texarkana, Arkansas there was a big wind and rain storm so we took a much needed day off from being behind the wheel. Otherwise it was pretty smooth sailing - except for the big highways. 

Being on the back country roads in Iowa, Kansas, New Mexico, Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and parts of New York was lovely. The scenery was spectacular (most of the photos above came from these places) and we often saw little to no traffic - especially few if any trucks. At times we were literally the only vehicle on the road for miles and miles.

We thank our local hosts who opened their homes to us and took us for walks, suggested sites to see and shared food with us.

It was a real retirement kick-off vacation for Mary Beth. She kept saying, 'When we get home I'm going to have to figure out what to do with my life'.

I enjoyed the break from the intensity of my daily work although we did listen to many video interviews in the car, checked emails, and put up a blog post most days.

It's really a beautiful country but just too bad we have such fucked up leaders. America has always been about hyper-greed, super-profits, mass consumption, rampant individualism, colonial exploitation and endless wars. 

We are now witnessing the resulting blow-back and imperial collapse.

It's good to be home.

Bruce

PS Be sure to click on the photos for a better view