road trip USA

kansas - and the weather, part ii

Dust in the Wind

I hadn't intended to return to the weather as a blog topic, but this is proving to be a big issue. The more perceptive amongst my readers might have detected that my inclination is favourable to the USA. Here I make the distinction from its government's foreign policy, which I think often gets mixed up in European minds with the wider issue of the qualities of the USA. (And we can't really argue that our own government's foreign policy covers us in reflected glory...)

One of the reasons that I so like the US is that it still has a sense of huge scale, and of not yet - quite - being tamed. It will be a sad day when the whole of this planet has been subjugated by one species - when there isn't anything left untamed, unploughed, unburned, uncivilised, un-westernised, unsanitised. Yet we are getting awfully close to that. The vast Amazon jungle has been mostly tamed, or destroyed, depending on your point of view: Africa's remaining wildernesses are coming under the inexorable pressure of human population growth completely out of control, and too poor to be able to afford to protect its environment effectively. The Antarctic is melting rapidly. So part of the attraction of the US, to me, is that it still functions in some respects on a huge scale, and it does do quite a lot to preserve wilderness in a coherent way. The behaviour of the USA's weather systems is one of the few remaining factors that remains completely beyond human control. It is at the same time beautiful, dreadful, frightening, tragic.

We are only mid-May, and yet this is already the seventh most active tornado year on record. Over 50 tornados were recorded last weekend, resulting in over 20 deaths - in the best prepared society in the world. If you are in your car and see a tornado approaching, leave your vehicle and seek cover. If you are near an underpass, do not take cover Under the Bridge, as this can funnel the winds.

The small town of Picher in Oklahoma was largely destroyed over the weekend, and seven citizens died. By coincidence, I passed through another tornado casualty that very day, Greensburg, Kansas. A dozen people died here. My pictures are all of Main Street - ie, this isn't some sparsely populated suburb, but the very centre of the town. However, mine are at ground level, and I have therefore borrowed an aerial shot from the internet, that looks like something from the Great War.

For the sake of brevity, my own pictures are in a separate album - see the link left. I repeat - these are pictures of (what was) the town centre. I am afraid that I am going to have to revise my original Lists Of Ten. Although the British Government didn't cover itself in glory in supporting the citizens of Hull following last year's floods, I can't imagine that we would have left a town this badly devastated to fend quite so much for itself. So - although we don't score that well ourselves - I believe the case is made, M'lud, that Britain does Disaster Support for its own citizens better than the USA.

Continuing the the theme of uncontrollable and unpredictable weather, whilst driving into Pueblo (Colorado) yesterday, I had to resort to paper towel draped over my left arm and knee to prevent sunburn - it was really that hot. This morning I wake to news that it is snowing in Flagstaff Arizona - some 200 miles south of me - and despite putting away the shorts and wrapping up warmly, it feels freezing cold when I venture out for a stroll in Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs. Tonight, the forecast is for snow flurries here tomorrow. Yikes! Bill (from Missour-a) is so disgusted, that he is heading home. (I neglect to mention that it's been raining for 6 straight days in his home state.)

The Road to Hell?

If you believe the travel writers, Kansas is just an unpleasant barrier to be got through as quickly as possible on the way to something more interesting.

Well Mr Tripper begs to disagree. Perhaps when seen from the Freeway, that might be the case: but seen from "proper" roads, Kansas is very green, in all sorts of shades, from the yellow/brown green of semi moorland, to the intense green of irrigated farmland. It is for the most part pleasantly undulating, a patchwork of small and large farming units, with cattle, horses, a scattering of sheep, even a couple of herds of bison. The trees are brilliantly translucent green, the soil varies from rich black though red to semi-arid yellowish brown. The road itself is almost empty, which makes driving relaxing and easy, and Kansas allows 65mph on these long open stretches.

The roadside is rich with Historic Markers, mostly relating to the trails established by the pioneers and settlers. The Nodding Donkeys of the oil sector sit in solitary splendour out in vast fields, the giant grain and feed silos look like skyscrapers from a distance, and every so often a huge goods train meanders its way alongside the road. Whether or not you like trains (and Mr T likes them, although respecting that many do not) their sheer size here renders them striking. More on these transport leviathans another day.

The one discordant note that intrudes on Mr T's reverie relates to the beef sector: specifically, the cattle feeding depots, where thousands of beef animals are being fattened up for market: inevitably, these are beside the railway lines (which are beside the road) and the smell is simply indescribable (I imagine that it's sileage). A beefburger suddenly seems less attractive...

Learned in Larned

Fort Larned is a well preserved icon of the Sante Fe Trail, and it was at the centre of the Indian Wars in the 1860s-70s. It's a beautiful site, in prestine condition, and of sufficient historical importance to be adopted by the US National Park Service as a National Historic Site for the nation - located about 6 miles off the main R56, and about 60 miles from Dodge City.

I am flattered, yet also somewhat perplexed, to be NPS Ranger Michael Symour's only visitor on a beautiful sunny Sunday morning in May. As a historian, Michael waxed endearingly lyrical on his subject, which is the history of this place, but more than that, its positioning and relevance in the development of this nation and its cosmopolitan society. He spent the best part of an hour talking me through subjects as diverse as the importance of the Winchester Rifle (actually based on the Henry Rifle, which made the major design breakthrough) even the technique for reloading it, and the Union's decision not to buy it in bulk, despite its superiority, because of its cost and the overwhelming logistical problems of sustaining a mobile army with too many incompatible weapons and ammo.

Michael moved on to the fact that after the Civil War, the first black cavalry unit was based here (having just been emancipated, of course, by Lincoln's proclamation): how racial tensions amongst the troops affected the deployment, and how black army units evolved and struggled for acceptance right through to the Korean War.

The Lone Ranger? or The Only Living Boy in New Fort?

I mentioned the honour of having my own personal guide and historian, and he observed mournfully that unless it involves rides, video games or fast food, young people don't seem interested in their heritage. I can only nod in agreement. After giving up the best part of his morning he departs to the hidden detail behind the public face - the random audit trail required by government: 300 exhibits selected at random to be double checked and double signed for, plus ALL the firearms every year: regardless of whether they are replica, original, operational or not. It's a lot of work to support solitary visitors. Truly, a gentleman and a scholar.

And I've reached Kinsley, Kansas, which is halfway across the USA.

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