Reflections on the way

I loved the smaller roads, and routed through Pea Ridge town itself (nice HS football field/stadium), up the MO side of the KS/MO border a while, then N into KS and finally to Malvern Lake and Eisenhower State Park.

On the way, corn, lots of corn, even in MO before crossing into KS.  big fields of the most verdant green you could imagine. Very lovely.  And they are recently haying, large bales dotting new mown fields.  Into KS, I began to see the occasional new mown fields with the most rich golden tan stubble.  These are wheat fields, newly mown.  The contrast betweeen the bright green corn fields and the warm golden stubble fields was a visual treat.

Passed through a number of small towns, but not as many as I expected--there is a lot of open space in KS.  Fort Scott and Burlington are a couple of town names that I remember.  In one town, there was an artificially constructed grassy knob, 25-30' high.  And on top an equally tall sculpture of a pair of praying hands.  Next to the sculpture was one of those huge auto dealership American Flags, flying at half mast, no doubt for the Orlando horror.

Another thing that impressed me was a windmill farm.  These mills, 25 or 30 of them, strething to the horizon in a long line, were enormous three bladed affairs.  I have seen the type before, off the I40 on the way to Tulsa, but I guess they were farther away, as I had never felt the sheer magnitude of the structures as I did these.  They were turning slowly, maybe 10 rpm, each with the blades in different positions.  Stark white against green vegetative foreground, and the blue and white background of the cloud strewn sky.  Beautiful, and elegantly producing pollutant-free power.