Day’s Three, Four and Five

On Wednesday, the highway snaked through gold – fields of wheat and grain stretching from horizon to horizon. The only trees stood silently, sheltering farm house and barn. As the miles flew by, the scene gradually changed. By Thursday, mesa’s, abrupt hills, grain thriving on their flat tops, flashed by our car windows. How do farmers get their tractors and combines up there, I wondered. Occasionally, a determined evergreen or Russian olive tree, it’s feet tickled by the browngold fuzz of dry grass, stood bravely on the steep hillsides. The valleys wandering between, lush with trees and crops of potatoes, sugar beets, and sometimes even corn, housed tiny isolated communities, And everywhere, grey-turquoise lumps of pungent sagebrush graced the scene.
That afternoon we reached the North Dakota badlands. The sharply pointed crumbly sandstone hills, piled one on top of the other presented a dangerous maze to travelers, Even horseback trails looked impossible to navigate. We stopped for a break in Medora, a commercialized tourist trap. Souvenirs, and gas were available at inflated prices. Some signs offered trail rides, others said, “Walk on the sidewalks, rattlesnakes here. Do the snakes know they aren’t allowed on the sidewalks, I wondered.
By supper time the scene had changed once again. Trees marched over the ever growing hills until the landscape resembled a waving length of brown fabric covered with green dots.
This morning we crossed into Idaho. Tall mountains surrounded us. Alongside the interstate, flashing pixel boards announced, “Watch for wildlife and fallen rocks.” Gone are the fenced off two hundred foot cultivated road allowances of North Dakota.
“Look at that,” Tom says.
Towering above me is a mountain, totally devoid of trees. Across its face runs a narrow foot path, it’s precise switchbacks forming a dark zipper in the brown grass.
Tonight we’ve arrived in Kelowna. My reading is done. The beauty of God’s world has been amazing. The people along the way have been a special blessing. At every stop, Canadians have claimed us as friends, Americans have welcomed us as neighbours. Last night in the motel outdoor pool we chatted with a mom and her two young girls, even sold them a copy of both of my books. This morning a couple from Wisconsin stopped for a chat as we loaded the car. A clerk at the Idaho information desk, told us proudly that her daughter was expecting a baby. We listened, offered Stella for sale as a baby gift.
“I only have my credit card here,” she said. “I’d like to buy both books.”
I signed the books and left them and my address with her. “I’ll trust that you’ll mail the money,” I said.
“You’d do that?” she said, “thank you.”
Probably just another one of those God Incidents, I thought.
Conference orientation is tomorrow afternoon We’re tired and ready for sleep. Our adventure has just begun.