Somewhere in Middle America
With quarter 4 looming large on the horizon, it is becoming pretty apparent to me that the majority of my traveling days for 2025 are finished. Yes, I do have two more camping trips planned, and I have a conference at the end of October I will be heading "up north" for, but any big trips are off the table. That realization has me thinking about the time over a year ago when @mrsbozz and I drove out to Colorado for the Fourth of July holiday.
Actually, there is a lot of stuff that gets me thinking about that trip. It was an amazing time and even though it took us a lot longer than flying, I am glad we rented a car and decided to drive the 1300 miles one way. It gave us a chance to see some new towns and countryside that we have never seen before. It also gave us a lot of bonding time and funny stories to share over and over again.
Road trips are good for that aren't they? Whether it's some crazy driver you run into, or the world's largest "whatever" on the side of the road, there is always something new and exciting to see.
Especially in the US, a good old fashioned road trip really gives you an idea of just how big the country is. It also gives you an idea of all the infrastructure that is in place to keep the country moving forward. From our horrendously slow railways, to truckers running three wide down the expressway. Then you have all the small towns that dot the road along the way.
I was looking at some of my Google Keep notes the other day that contain future story ideas and I came across a comment I made to myself about small towns and how many times the largest building in a small town across the United States is a grain elevator.
Either that or a windmill. That's definitely the case in the area of the country where I live. With that in mind, I decided for this #threetunetuesday sponsored by @ablaze I am going to share songs with the name of a city in their title. That's the theme, simple yet effective. I have three great tunes all planned out though there are countless songs I could pick. I hope you enjoy all of them!
"Omaha" is one of my favorite songs off the Counting Crows debut album August and Everything After. The title of the album actually comes from the lyrics of a song they were working on before they became the cohesive group that we know as Counting Crows. I think they later released it on one of their anthology albums or some live album. I have them all, I just don't remember right now.
According to wikipedia, Omaha is the most populous city in the state of Nebraska. It sits right on the banks of the Missouri river and boasts a population of about 500,000 people I would guess by now.
It was founded in 1854 and was host to the World's Fair in 1898 which introduced a lot of people to the great wild west. Apparently World's Fairs still take place, but I can only imagine what it would have been like to visit one of them back in the day.
The closest I have ever been to Texas is Oklahoma. I will be the first to admit that. I don't want you to think I am trying to fool you by talking about all the places I have been. In fact, if you want to be technical, I've never actually been to any of the places I am going to share with you today. I have been through Omaha, but if I remember correctly, it was raining as we cruised down I-80 on our way to Denver.
"Amarillo By Morning" is a great classic song by the king of country George Strait. It's pretty simple and isn't that complex, but it is a great tune and really gives you that old country feel. As you listen to it, it is pretty easy to imagine yourself as a rodeo rider traveling to the next town to do what they love the most.
Amarillo Texas was established in 1997 and is the 17th most populous city in the state of Texas and the most populous city in what is called the "panhandle" of Texas. Again, according to Wikipedia, it was originally called Oneida, and it is home to Pantex which is the only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility in the US.
"Tupelo Honey" is one of my favorite songs by Van Morrison. I just recently had the chance to introduce my niece to the magnificence that is Van Morrison and this is one of the handful of songs that I made sure she listened to. I've actually never seen this video of this performance, so this is a special treat for me as much as it is one for you. He would definitely be on my bucket list to see live enough though I know he probably doesn't sound as good now as he did back then.
Tupelo Mississippi was founded in 1870 in an area that had earlier been settled as "Gum Pond". Also according to Wikipedia, Tupelo was the first city to receive power from the Tennessee Valley Authority. You might recognize that name as they recently entered a deal with my favorite nuclear power company NuScale for manufacture of some small modular nuclear reactors.
In 1936 most of the city was devastated by a tornado and to date it remains one of the deadliest tornadoes in US history.
It actually has a quite rich history and though I have never been to Mississippi that I can remember, I think Tupelo is one of the spots I would like to visit if I ever find myself down that way.
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Your note about grain elevators being the big building in small towns really hit me. They do feel like prairie cathedrals when you roll by at dusk. Pairing that image with city titled tunes like Omaha and Amarillo By Morning makes the whole thing hum, and and I could almost smell the dust on I 80 again. Tupelo Honey is defintely one of those songs that softens the edges after long miles. Loved the way you kept it simple yet evocative, ciTY vibes without overdoing it.
!PIZZA
Thanks, I appreciate it! I like the term prairie cathedrals. Great stuff!
Glad it resonated, and prairie catheDRals really fits those grain elevators.
Your picks flowed together like a long highway sto;ry, made me smiel.
Ever get the itch to swing back through one of those towns for a deeper look?
Yeah, we took two days to drive out there, but even then we didn't really have enough time to do any real exploring. I really wanted to find some wagon wheel ruts in the countryside. I know they are here and there, but I never had the time to stop and look.
$PIZZA slices delivered:
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STOPHaha this is so true in the great plains. If a town is >800 or less this statement is true. Probably more rail cars pass by the grain elevator than automobiles too :)
Yes, that is probably very true!
Feels like I am watching some good vibes American movie while reading this blog. Plus these evergreens. 🎼 Big upvote to this!
Thanks, I appreciate it! We have a lot of beautiful countryside here for sure! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I went to the University of Kansas, and me and my first wife took a few trips around the area visiting Omaha, Saint Louis, Memphis and many other places. What I remembered the most are all the vast spaces in between and fields and fields of crops...
Yes, lots and lots of open spaces around there! I actually feel like the first hour of Colorado is worse than Nebraska and Kansas. Those at least had a bit of green!
That was one long drive you two embarked on to Colorado... I have driven across the country two times, and I will never do a third! It is such a big country to cross and so much of it is incredibly drab in the plain or parts of Texas. And Texas takes forever to drive through, I did that once, and only once! I have spent a lot of time in San Antonio for Army training over the years and I love the city. If you ever get a chance I recommend it!
Flying is much faster, although every year it becomes less and less enjoyable. Some of it is the airlines fault, but mostly just bad passengers!
I do love Counting Crows, and Omaha is a great choice! Van Morrison is great too, one of those artists younger folks really haven't heard and it's a shame. I've always been a George Strait fan, and Amarillo by Morning is a great pick. Great post today!
Thanks, I appreciate that! Yeah, I want to get to Texas sometime, also Montana, but the huge distances are a bit scary for me. I didn't mind Denver, but I don't know if I could do it again. Flying is just ridiculous.
We used to love our road trips down to Sedona and, you're right, it does remind you of how vast America is. I was surprised by how desolate much of the middle of our country is. On our route to Arizona from Minnesota cities became few and far between after Kansas City and there were quite a few abandoned or nearly abandoned towns. I was very thankful for cruise control on those four day drives. : )
That's part of what I found really sad about things. When you are heading across on I-70 or I-80 you see a lot of old exits with maybe a burned out gas station or some other buildings. You think about how before cars could travel such long distances those were probably major hubs and had all kinds of traffic and stories to tell.
It is sad. Guymon, OK was always our little oasis and we'd stop there for the night before our push to Albuquerque. It's not a big town but all the essentials are there. There's a whole lot of nothing between Kansas City and Guymon, mostly abandoned towns or towns barely hanging on. There's even less between Guymon and Albuquerque.
I remember in the 70's when so many of those little mom & pop roadside restaurants, stores, and attractions were still around. There were tons of smaller "motels" too. Most of them were already fading into history by the end of the 80's. I never thought about it before but the advent of more reliable cars with higher MPGs probably contributed a lot to the demise of those small, remote towns.
Yeah, I mean some of those little hotels were sketch and made you instantly think of Bates Motel, but that was someone's living and livelihood. Perhaps even a family owned business that had been handed down for generations. I'm not the sort of person who likes to make a ton of stops when I am driving from point A to point B, but it's still sad that these places have faded into obscurity.
I never bothered to listen very closely to the "Omaha" song but I was in college when it came out so I can hear it in my head just with you mentioning it. Actually, when I read your title and it had "middle America" in it, it was the first thing that popped to mind.
It's such a good song. Adam Duritz has a knack for writing some thoughtful and poignant lyrics. There is a line from their new song that hits me hard every time I hear it.