Sailing Across Kansas
Hold on to your hat! We’re in Kansas where the wind whips across the prairie and with one good tornado you can end up in Oz.
Highway 70 West: We’re listening to “1000 Faces of the Hero” by Joseph Campbell on the tape player, read at a fast and hypnotic pace, as the calm sea of Kansas green spreads out before us. The length of the state is a full day’s drive and consists mostly of wide open and flat space. Mile after mile of it gives me an unsettling sense of vulnerablity, unlike a landscape buffered by trees, which can make me feel protected.
Joseph Campbell says: “mythology is psychology misinterpreted as biography, history, and cosmology.” I write it down and then avert my eyes from the blinding sun slipping down and try not to think about the fall of Humpty Dumpy and the hopeless fact that he won’t get put back together again. As daylight fades, I imagine a distant silo is a lighthouse and we’re sailing across Kansas.
On a clear night, like this one, you can see the Colorado Mountains far off on the horizon. They appear so suddenly that it’s hard to tell the difference between them and the clouds. Once I realize what they are, I point them out to Joe, as though I had just spotted land.
We pull into the campground, like a mooring ship at a dock and revel in the hushed stillness, a sharp contrast from the face pace of highway travel. The only thing visible outside our camper door is the expansive empty prairie under the big starry sky. Gone is the uncomfortable feeling of vulnerability. I feel safe in the midst of it all.
September 27th, 2005 1:17 pm
WHEW!!!! It’s would be an entry in itself to tell what I’ve gone through just to get this one posted. Sorry the KANSAS on the random license plate doesn’t show up very well. And thanks to everyone who has came to visit and left a comment.
We’re in Colorado Springs today…onto to Aspen for Joe’s brother’s wedding soon. Heard the coyotes last night.
September 27th, 2005 7:16 pm
I’ve never been to Kansas, but I hear that crossing Kansas can be a bit boring. Hope you found more to view than prairies and cornfields.
September 27th, 2005 9:59 pm
you are just the best writer you know!
i am gonna read this post again…and maybe even again… 🙂
September 28th, 2005 12:11 am
Hello, Christopher Columbus! You spot land, huh? Thanks for making me SMILE.
September 28th, 2005 12:26 am
I’ve made the I-70 trek across Kansas many times. I think when you enter Kansas from either side of I-70 a billboard should read “Last Starbucks (or any kind of decent coffee) for 500 miles.” Safe travels!
September 28th, 2005 7:52 am
I was only seven when I went to Colorado with nana – fifty years ago! I can still remember being confused when trying to decipher the mountains from the clouds… thanks for reminding me. It was a fun trip even though all I can recall now is the clouds & the breathtaking mountains (and nana’s love). I remember too the clouds looking just like the ocean waves. From my little girl persception, I turned them into what was familiar. BTW, I had no trouble making out the word KANAS on the licence plate. What I found myself doing, before I read your post, was trying to make the UFZ 125 mean something. I couldn’t, so I read on thinking you had come up with something cute. You didn’t. But a great post all the same. Say hi to Joe and keep on trucking. Kathy
September 28th, 2005 11:10 am
Great post! Have a great time!
September 28th, 2005 1:57 pm
I’ve been enjoying your traveling tales. I’ll be leaving myself to drive (solo) from Florida to Kansas in a few weeks. On the way back, I might swing through north Georgia and Southern North Carolina. Looking forward to it.
September 28th, 2005 5:50 pm
Yes the enclosed spaceship of the highway car does make one appreciate stars and lying by trees that much more “grounded” and still. Lovely images.
September 28th, 2005 10:26 pm
I’ve been planning to read Joseph Campbell for years. Listening to him in the car is an excellent idea.
September 28th, 2005 11:05 pm
Remember when you passed Hays and Wakeeney and Quinter and Gove and Grainfield and Oakley…? I have family connections there.
September 28th, 2005 11:13 pm
Fabulous imagery here! I love the lighthouse silo. I haven’t been to Kansas, but this reminded me of a drive through Iowa — flatness where there wasn’t towering corn.
September 29th, 2005 2:01 pm
This is a lovely post.
Being a Canadian prairie gal, I appreciate your description of the boundless prairie landscape.