There are Windmills: Roadtrip

There are Windmills

Saturday afternoon I saw a truck hauling cars. A Hummer H2 was on the top deck, along with a couple of large Jeeps. These looked new, but not fresh. On the bottom deck was a collection of used cars, including a crushed Mazda. This was the only truck hauling cars that I saw on a drive from Kalamazoo, Michigan to Sutton, Nebraska. On the radio, I heard that car dealers were holding on to trade-ins with less than 135,000 miles, whereas a year ago the dealers were pushing off cars with more than 80,000 miles to used car lots. The definition of high mileage has changed.

In trucks going east in Iowa were the blades of wind turbines. They look like whales, with little trailers holding up their tails. These were followed by gear boxes and poles and large chunks of glossy, clean hardware. There may have been 50 blades. On some of the ridges between the swales are farms of slow turning three-bladed wind mills. It was like a dream, where in slow motion, you avoid the beaters of the mixer.

A year ago, on much the same trip, were billboards for clean coal, and hand made signs along the interstate – Corn Ethanol for America.

The Mississippi and the rivers of Iowa are full.

I spent the night in Sutton, Nebraska in the midst of vast fields and many cows. There is an ethanol plant on U.S. 6 to the west of town. It smells better than the feedlots. This strip of southern Nebraska seems to be doing all right. The Fox Hollow Motel on the edge of town is nice, but it could use some more customers. They told me the place to eat was the American Legion Hall. So I dressed for the Legion and sat at the bar in Argonne 61 and talked with Eddie. He is 92; he told me a little of the dust bowl, and how they had a big dust storm just a few weeks back. The dust was black. He said that the farming had been good in the area for a long time. In the back of the hall they were auctioning baked goods. The broasted chicken is as good as advertised. Soup, salad, chicken, potato, and a gin and tonic – $10.50. Sutton, Nebraska is robust and proud and making food and energy and people who care about America.

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