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America is a great country, mile after mile

By CAL BEVERLY
cbeverly@thecitizennews.com

Back at home, nearly 7,000 miles later, I can report to you that the United States of America is a great country.

You knew that already?

I mean great in its initial definition: “Notably large in size: huge; of a kind characterized by relative largeness.”

On our way across our nation via minivan and two-lane highways, my wife and I discovered that Iowa comprises 95 percent cultivated land. That’s another kind of “great”: The kind that describes the character of a people who work 95 out of every 100 acres of soil to feed the vast rest of us.

I come home with a manifold greater appreciation of our country, seen at ground level across furrowed fields, fenced pastures, green and amber waves, perfect mountain majesties, rambling highways through desolate spaces, cities that rise beyond the clouds.

The occasion was my first-ever three-week vacation. I am glad I went. I am glad to be back.

I have two words for all vacationers similarly inclined: Digital camera.

We have more than 850 shots, many of them from the moving vehicle, to document our journey. About 845 of them are great pictures. I will not spend a penny on film developing. That alone pays for the third week on the road.

We rolled into our driveway about 20 minutes before the first big boom illuminated Lake Peachtree and thousands of upturned faces. We stood across from City Hall and enjoyed a spectacular conclusion to our three-week getaway.

Among the pleasures of getting away from it all was a virtual media fast. We watched little to no TV, read only the front pages of small-town newspapers, and heard lots of pork belly and heifer auction prices on still-local AM radio stations.

I returned reluctant to resume my couch-potato TV addiction. I don’t want to know all the political nastiness filling the airwaves and print columns.

My computer currently is downloading three weeks of e-mail: 85,393 e-mails unread by me (Contributors, don’t panic: Staff members received copies of all my incoming e-mails while I was gone.).

Obviously, while I was away, an e-mail virus got loose again and spammed me by the tens of thousands. Tuesday noon and I’m still trying to delete the stuff.

My accountant reports that I should leave more often: The paper had a record month while I was gone.

I already know where I want to drive next.