Did you think I'd dropped off the planet? Actually - I feel like I've been traversing half the planet. I know we drove half our lovely country! from North Carolina to Washington state. And loved every minute of it!
I've learned a number of things. One is that I still love Chicago! I love tall buildings both from way down on the ground and from waaay up in the sky!
I adore wide open skies and twisting mountain roads! I truly miss watching thunderstorms move across the sky.
I thought the ten days of car travel with three teenagers was easier than one day of air travel with two toddlers. Especially after discovering that those toddlers get carsick on those twisting, winding, mountain roads!
And - for some reason I didn't think I'd ever in my life have the opportunity to see a mountain meadow full of wildflowers again. Why, I don't know. It made me cry for the beauty of it.
The beautiful mountain passes were tempered by seeing half of the trees dead. One of my loved ones believes it is the environmentalists fault - that they have restricted the spraying of insecticides that would save the forests. (He didn't explain how they survived before the spraying started.) I've read articles saying that the subtle shift in temperatures is allowing the beetle larva to survive and thrive. Sigh. What have we done to ourselves? We did get to see the beginning of a few western wind farms. We need MORE technology and innovations like that to rid ourselves of fossil fuels. This said of course, as I drove and drove and drove and consumed many gallons of fossil fuel myself. Sigh.
Bigger sigh - on now to six weeks of nothing but heads-down studio time to make the artwork deadline for my book.
cheers!
