Heartland

7 May 1999, Friday
Started: Seward, Nebraska, 8:40am (Central time)
Reached: Estes Park, Colorado, 5:00pm (Mountain time)
Miles: 542 (2031 cumulative)
Route:
	Nebraska - Grand Island, North Platte, Big Springs
	Colorado - Fort Morgan, Denver, Boulder
Interstates: 80, 76, US36

We saw a couple of interesting things in Seward. The first was this road
sign that said "Seward, Alaska: 4700 miles" or something like that!  The
second was a volume discount on car-wash, 4 for $10 and 9 for $20. Not
many people take Nine cars to a car-wash and claim a discount on the East
coast! 

As we started our drive through Nebraska, the road was absolutely
straight, but there were tiny hills all along. Flat fields extended to the
horizon. There were some cows grazing in the fields. The houses were near
the center of a vast field, and were accompanied by a bunch of trees and a
couple of silos (tower-like structures used to store grains). These were
the only structures that stood out in this Heartland. The fields were
supposedly for corn, but we did not see any crop at that time of the year.

It was still cloudy when we started, but we could see the cloud cover
ending towards West. Finally, around 10:00am, we had our first glimpse at
sunlight in almost two days.

Though we did not feel it, we were gaining elevation. At Lincoln, we were
at 1500 ft. We gained approximately 500 ft for every 70 miles throughout
the day till we reached Boulder in Colorado. 

In Nebraska, we crossed into Mountain time zone, which is one hour behind
Central time. We soon left I80 and got on I76 towards Boulder. Colorado
greeted us as the "Colorful Colorado". The place where we stopped for
lunch defined "middle of nowhere". Every direction we cast our glance to,
there was nothing but barren land. Apart from I76, there was only one road
that went rolling along the hills to who knows where!

The roadside now changed from farms to ranches. The soil was much lighter
in color. There were scrubs, but hardly any trees. We could feel the heat.
The road was absolutely straight, but went through hills. We were
surprised to notice that bicycles are allowed on interstate highways in
Colorado.

I had noted that the shape of the farms was circular in the midwest from a
plane a couple of months ago. The mystery was finally answered when I had
a closer look at the fields in Iowa, Nebraska, and Colorado. They had a
*very* long pipe, with wheels in-between, that is hinged at one end, and
rotates about this end, watering the farm. We actually saw it spraying
water in Colorado.

In Colorado, we saw a small rainbow very high in the sky in a big cloud.
There was no sign of rain, and it was bright and sunny everywhere. 

At about 2:00pm Mountain time, I had my first glimpse at the snow-covered
peaks of the Rockies on the horizon. I first thought that they were just a
bunch of white clouds. When we got a little closer, I could make out the
sharp outline. 

The plains were so vast that we could actually see where this mountain
range began in the North and ended in the South. Along the road, we also
saw some sand. This place can get really arid!

We reached Denver and skirted the city to get on US 36 to Boulder. We
could now see the "Rocky" part of the mountains closely. After Boulder,
the road became quite steep, and I had to shift the car to a lower gear.
The drive was quite scenic. We could see some snow-covered peaks to the
left. There was snow under the needle-leaved trees on the slopes. We
reached Estes Park and moved into a motel about 5:00pm.

We could see some snowy peaks from our room itself. By the time we went
for dinner, most of the restaurants were closed already! They close at
7:00pm. The sunset was quite early, and the sun was bright yellow as it
"set" on a mountain. Estes Park is in a small valley, so the sunrise and
sunset are not with a red sun.

While returning, we saw some white-tail deers and elks grazing near the
motel itself! Though I managed to photograph the deers, the elks were not
approachable. The opportunity presented the next morning.