Sentinel

Standing quietly in an autumn sunset, the ventilator (I think that's what it is) on the old barn watches the prairie in all directions. A sneak attack by Nebraska would be impossible.         

Where The Cattle Get Their Cash

The land is more sparsely populated as you go west from Marysville. The average rainfall is less and less, the towns farther apart, the services more infrequent. Big sky, long views. But all those cattle need a place to get a quick fifty bucks sometimes.             

Heartland Monuments

Eye-poppers on the prairie.

My wife's biannual family reunion is held in the parish hall of Immanuel Lutheran Church, way out in the soy and corn fields. Its mailing address is Bremen, Kansas, the town of 50 I alluded to yesterday, but that has to be six or eight miles away. My wife and her siblings went to the parish school, now closed due to dwindling population. There is a museum inside now, more about which soon. The white siding just pops against the boundless summer sky.

The next big town to the north is Beatrice, Nebraska (population 12,400!). The old railway station has been beautifully restored and now used as the county historical museum. A small model of the Statue of Liberty stands in front. There is very little information about it online. It seems to have turned up about 1970 and was made by a sculptor from Los Angeles. Doesn't have quite the same patina as the original.                   

The Prairie

I like Kansas, or at least the part my wife is from. Some people think the state is a huge bore, flat and featureless on the long drive from Kansas City to Colorado. I think the northeastern part, the area I know, is beautiful and subtle. Not flat, not hilly, the land undulates in broad, low waves. Not many trees, which gives a feeling of great openness. This is its late fall look. It is altogether different in snow and summer green.

The first two pictures are around the old family farm, now owned by my wife's brother and his wife. Note the dust trail from a truck in the second photo, driving up a gravel county road. The third picture was taken a short distance from my mother-in-law's apartment on the edge of Marysville, the only town in the area big enough to have a Walmart.

We drove the 400 miles (644 km) straight home yesterday under warm, clear skies. Cruising through this territory listening to Hildegard von Bingen on satellite radio's medieval music show was otherworldly.                      

STL DPB On The Road: Prairie

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Telephone and power lines march north along County Line Road between Washington and Marshall Counties, Kansas. Behind me and to my right is my wife's family farm, now owned by her youngest brother and his wife.

Downtown St. Louis 365 is upside down and backwards.