I love driving the back roads of the U.S. and discovering the little
out of the way towns where the locals hang around the neighborhood
diner and talk about the weather or the farm report or what's going on
in high school sports ("Back in my hometown / They would have cleared
the floor / Just to watch the rain come down")
There is a wonderful book, probably 20 years old by now, titled "Blue
Highways" by William Least Heat-Moon. It's a book that makes me
appreciate the whole of the United States every time I read it, and
especially those little towns in every state. Reading that book causes
me to want to get in my car and start driving to anywhere and nowhere
(and to Nothing, Arizona).
There's a short chapter - called "Watchtower," I think - that describes
the radar tower at my very first duty station near Fortuna, North
Dakota (about 3 miles from the Saskatchewan border), so the book is
extra special to me.
The author has a website: http://www.heat-moon.com/, and you can often
find the book in "used" stores, or it's available on Amazon, etc.
As for vistas, one of my favorites is in Eastern Wyoming, where the
land is very flat and stark white rock buttes jut up from the land.
It's awesome during a thunderstorm.
Lori
