Day 38
October 18. 2010

Leaving Minnesota

An early morning big sky greets us in Coon Rapids, Minnesota.  A low deck of thin clouds spreads across the full line of the eastern sunrise.  Hanging low it brings the sky within reach.  These sweeping patches of cirrus climbing to cumulus clouds stay with us for a good share of the drive.  At 70 mps the miles fly by along I-94 W, but not so fast as to blur the landscape.  We are still in farming country. Big farmhouse with bigger silos snuggled into classic barns sit surrounded by green pastures, corn fields and acres of baled cornstalks that look like hay.  The corn stands dry in fields plowed in prim straight rows.  Fields of corn neatly rolled spread out in front of them.  When the angle and elevation of the fields lines up just right with that of the road you can actually see the corn rows wave and roll as you pass by. “Amber fields of grain” comes to mind, especially when harvesting equipment sits on the edge of the cleared fields with big bins of, what looks like, dried kernels of corn. We find out later that the dried stalks are sometimes harvested for cattle bedding. The rows ripple and flow as we speed by. Cattle graze under the hardwood trees along the way. 

Wind and weather have stripped most of the leaves from the body of the trees.  Bright yellow leaves hang on to the crown and perimeter branches giving the trees a bit of an angelic halo effect when the sun lights up the golden leaves.