This is My Father's World

I've decided that I am a lover of nature in general ...
but the Great Plains would probably be the exception --
although to be fair, I think we only traveled
through a little bit of that part of the country.
The picture below is what we saw almost immediately
after turning east northeast out of Denver yesterday ...
and the next four hours were essentially this!

Not one hill, barely any trees, and this
one single color for miles and miles ...

But Nebraska got a little bit more interesting
as we traveled through it today ...

Some of these photos are just silly --
like this King Kong Burger joint ...
See the gorilla on top and the others
gracing the parking lot?

Suffice it to say that we did NOT eat here ...
There was an abundance of wind turbines
throughout our drive east through Nebraska today ...
Here is a turbine blade in transit!
This is one of the many rivers we crossed
throughout the day ... this is
the Missouri River that we crossed into Iowa.
We were on I-80 and stayed on it all the way to
Des Moines ...
this stretch of road was full of
harvest colors of amber, copper, gold ...
This is a steel through truss bridge
with concrete girders on the approaches ...
(per Mr. Jones)
Terraced farming ...

I know that the beauty of Pike's Peak was amazing
yesterday, but it is a beauty that I am not accustomed to --
kind of an alien experience ...
but fields and meadows and farms?
That's something that I just love so much!

Do you see the cattle on those hills?
I missed taking a picture of a
beautiful hillside, close-up,
of cattle grazing in a meadow and I remembered
these verses:

"... all the animals of the forest are mine,
and I own the cattle on a thousand hills.
Every bird of the mountains and all of the animals
of the field belong to me.
If I were hungry, I would not mention it to you,
for all the world is mine and everything in it."

PSALM 50:10-12

This old hymn will date me, but I have always
loved singing it:

"This is my Father's world, and to my listening ears
all nature sings and round me rings
the music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world, I rest me in the thought
of rocks and trees, of skies and seas,
His hand the wonders wrought!

This is my Father's world, the birds their carols raise
the morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker's praise!
This is my Father's world! He shines in all that's fair!
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass
He speaks to me everywhere!

This is my Father's world, O let me ne'er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong
God is the ruler yet!
This is my Father's world, why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King; let the heaven's ring!
God reigns; let the earth be glad!"

We enjoyed hours and hours
of rolling hills, wild flowers, wheat fields,
wide open spaces ...

We saw horse and cow
and many deer along the way ...
I can't get used to seeing deer in the daytime
just roaming about the hillsides ...
I think I would really enjoy living on a farm!

This is Iowa's seat belt sign ...
This is a gas station/store name
I had never seen before: Kum & Go ...
And finally!
We crossed over into Minnesota.
We had been on I-80 across Iowa until
Des Moines, and then we got on I-35 and headed north
to St. Paul/Minneapolis.
It took us another nearly two hours to get
to Adam and Emily's apartment ...
we were kind of "lost" once we
got off the interstate --
this was not Mr. Jones's fault!
Our mapping program was kind of unclear!
Look at their beautiful view!
We enjoyed a late dinner with them
and met Pixie for the first time!
She is such a cutie!
She is trying to get used to Mr. Jones and I
but seems a bit nervous ...
she is still a kitten and is very mischievous!

Well! This is the last leg of our journey.
Tomorow, hopefully we are all going to go to
The Mall of America --
which will be fun for everyone except Mr. Jones
(who really does not like malls).
I'll show you pictures later ...