1. Debbie and I were up and at 'em pretty early this morning. Gibbs had a restless night and we decided to just get a move on and that we'd drive the entire way from Miles City to Kellogg, just over 600 miles. Yes, it was a long haul, but the combination of wide open spaces, trees golden with fall color, stunning mountains either on the horizon or right in front of us, made the drive very enjoyable.
I returned to a way of thinking about the USA that began for me back in about 1985. I was active in a political group back then and we were opposed to USA policies in Central America. Because this made us seem like people who were "anti-American", one day at an hours long planning meeting, the meeting's leader asked each of us to talk about what we loved about the USA.
I don't remember what my answer was, but one member's answer stayed with me. She talked about her love of the USA's various landscapes, its natural beauty, and its geographical variety.
I realized while driving today that I, too, love the physical beauty of the USA, not only in forests, mountains, along rivers, and as I drive through farm lands, but also in cities. As farm after farm stretched out before us yesterday in North Dakota and, today, as the golden trees were set against the majestic mountains of Montana and as we crossed rivers like the Madison and the Clark Fork, I felt, once again, the way the various landscapes of the USA move me, whether they are gentle and pastoral or mighty and imposing; whether they are alive with vermillion and golden leaves or stark with bare branches after the leaves have fallen; whether I am driving up and over the Continental Divide or whizzing on straight stretches of the Great Plains. I don't prefer one region over another. I don't think of one place as God's Country and all the others inferior to it. I love it all -- and so while it might seem that this trip we took from Valley Cottage, NY to Kellogg Idaho from September 16th to October 2nd was all about visiting breweries (and it was about that), it was also about the awe inspiring beauty of our country, from the shores of the Hudson River to the familiar mountains, rivers, and forests of the Silver Valley on North Idaho.
2. We arrived in Kellogg around five o'clock. We sized things up a bit, decided what groceries we needed for the immediate present (I went to the store), and I checked out how Copper and Luna were doing. They were put off a bit by having Gibbs in the house and responded with some hissing and a retreat to a hiding place upstairs. Neither Copper nor Luna was quite ready to get back to being close to me, but that changed once I went to bed. Luna came into bed and rubbed her head against me, lightly scratched me, persuaded me to feed her at around 1:30 a.m., and eventually burrowed herself under the covers and slept next to me. Copper was in and out, but I think he found some comfort and security being back on the bed with me in it and by about 6:30 or 7 a.m., he wanted to spend time outside.
3. At 7 p.m., Christy, Carol, and Paul came over for a party with Debbie and me. I was relieved that things with Copper and Luna went pretty well while we were gone. Yes, a problem or two occurred, but nothing I care to write about. It made me happy that Christy, Carol, and Paul expressed that they were happy to look after Luna and Copper, that it wasn't that big of a deal -- in other words, it didn't sound like an imposition. Plenty happened around Kellogg and the Silver Valley since I flew back east on September 12th and together, Carol, Paul, and Christy caught us up on all kinds of news.
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