Sky Paintings

Saturday's drive was long, but pleasant. The sky dominated it. I started out with a buttermilk sky - a light layer of clouds that look like a glass you just drank buttermilk from. All day the clouds changed formations. It was pretty overcast most of the day, but the clouds were just magnificent - except for the 5 minutes at the last rest stop when I tried to take a photo. But back on the road, and they got beautiful again. Guess you really did have to be there!

Kansas and Missouri have a nice series of rest stops along I-70. But don't speed - both states have troupers or state patrol cars sitting every few miles monitoring traffic. It was pleasant, really - everyone was comfortably going the speed limit, nobody was pushing or driving aggressively. Nice. Actually not much traffic at all, although more than Friday.

Until St. Louis. Lots of traffic there, with a highway system reminiscent of a Rube Goldberg device. Absolutely insane. And I don't know what drugs the construction planners were taking, but I think I'll pass - the construction detours were bizarre, splitting lanes up and joining them back together in really odd places with no apparent purpose. Add to that incredibly rude drivers and a slightly mischievous GPS taking me to the second place to join 64 rather than the first (and they were subsequent exits - why??), requiring me to cross 4 lanes of traffic from left to right, and I was SO glad to get out St. Louis.

Once in Illinois, drivers ignored the speed limit signs again. I found a group of other out-of-staters, and we kept each other company at only about 2 mph over the limit.

But the hotel is nice - I like Drury Inns. And Punkin has adapted well. She started out under the covers, but came out of hiding, is eating well, and exploring. She slept on top of the furry blanket I brought from home, which usually covers Loren's fancy leather desk chair that the cats have taken over.

For those who care about such things, Suellen, the music I played on Friday was Roll the Bones, by Rush, Supernatural by Carlos Santana, and 'Ulalena, which I like to describe as the soundtrack to a stage show I haven't seen, telling a story I don't know, in a language I don't understand. It's from a CD I got on our honeymoon in Hawaii - I asked the vendor for some real Hawaiian music, explaining that I like slack key guitar, and she recommended 2 really fine slack key albums and this one. It really is the soundtrack to a stage show. Marvelous music, great drums. I love it!

Saturday was a little more mellow - Earthbeat, by Paul Winter and the Dmitri Pokrovsky Singers, and Earth, from the Elements Series by Peter Kater.

One great scene - just as the song "Winter" was starting up I passed a large pond. The slightly-rippled water reflected the slightly-rippled gray sky, with a mirrored backdrop of still-bare trees bordering the far side of the water and shoreline. There was a small boat in the water, with two fishermen, back to back with lines dropped in the water.

If you haven't heard Earth, it has some really beautiful pieces. "Winter" and "Celestine" are my favorites. See if you can find them online and hear clips.

And for my family, I'm not sitting there changing CDs or anything. Loren gave me an iPod a couple of years ago, and one time when I was playing around with it I set up some of my favorite albums in playlists. I start it up at a rest stop and can go for hours.

I have some more notes, but I'll save them for another time. Shower (yay!), free breakfast (yay!), and on to Indiana and Kentucky!