TEXAS
Ezekiel 48:17 And the suburbs of the city shall be toward the north two hundred and fifty, and toward the south two hundred and fifty, and toward the east two hundred and fifty, and toward the west two hundred and fifty.
Oh my, I could write oodles about this state. It definitely has a spot in my heart, as I spent 4 years there. I had to choose this verse since everything is bigger and better in Texas (so they say.) The 250 is not about accuracy as this state is about 1,000 miles north to south, and 773 miles east to west, but gives you the vision of space.
There’s so much to talk about that I don’t know where to begin. From the dry, desert area around Seminole in western Texas, to the hot humidity of Houston, to the citification of Austin (its capital) to the lush greenness of the northeast, Texas has a bit of everything. Its history is amazing as well; you can see some of that if you go through the Alamo at San Antonio. The Riverwalk there gives you a glimpse into the beginning of southern culture. What I appreciate about Texans is their sense of humor. I lived near Paris, Texas, and the landmark that marks that town when you drive in for groceries is a 65 ft “Eiffel Tower”. However, on the top of the tower in perched a red cowboy hat! :0) That’s Paris, Texas-style! It made me chuckle everytime I went to town.  While I did NOT appreciate the rattlesnakes there, the Texas blue bonnets were breathtaking in the spring! Texas is a place that you need time to explore. I’m really glad I had the opportunity to live there for the years that I did.
OK 

SORRY FOR THE PAST MONTH. BETWEEN TRAVEL AND EMAIL CRASHES, TECH HAS BEEN NOT FUN. 
​I'LL SEE IF I CAN DO SOME DAILY POSTS UNTIL I'M CAUGHT UP!

​NEBRASKA         
Judges 5:6b the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways.
If you look at a map of Nebraska, you will understand why I picked this verse. If you look at the NW section, there are very few roads, and driving along them (Unless you are on the 2 freeways) is very relaxing as you don’t have to watch traffic. But on the other hand, it’s a long way from anywhere if you have trouble with your vehicle. I was traveling through one time in my 20’s with a type of cast on one leg due to some torn ligaments when I picked up a nail in one tire. I was planning to get to a Mennonite-Your-Way place near Lincoln for the night, so every 15 minutes I’d pull over, pull out my tire pump, and attach it. There was a place to step on to stabilize it, and I could easily do that even with the cast on my leg and pump away to fill the tire again. I soon learned how good people can be. Every time I’d stop to pump, the first vehicle coming along would pull over, and the man would jump out and exclaim, “You have a cast on your foot! Let me do that for you.” And he’d take over. The first time I just shrugged and thanked the man – but by the 4th or 5th time I got a little annoyed. What was it with people that made them think a cast meant you were dismembered or something?! (I know they were being kind, but the cast in no way hindered me from pumping up a tire.) I was petrified during one pumping session when an elderly, very portly gentleman and his wife stopped. He was huffing and puffing so badly I was scared he’d have a heart attack. When I tried to insist I was just fine pumping, the lady declared, “Of course you can’t manage the tire pump. Don’t you see that cast on your leg?” I stared at her, but she seemed to find nothing incongruous about what she’d just said! When I finally arrived at my destination, my hosts were so gracious and took charge of getting the tired repaired for me so I could continue on my (pumpless) way the next day.
The east/south section of Nebraska definitely has more people and things to do, but if you come into Nebraska after being at Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota – and are traveling in that southerly direction, make sure to find Alliance, Nebraska. “Carhenge” is worth a stop. It’s a playoff of Stonehenge, but instead of stones in a circle, they have cars. Someone did a neat job of creating this circle of 39 cars spraypainted grey to imitate that famous circle spot of massive stones standing upright in England.

​SOUTH DAKOTA                 
Jer 5:3b …they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return
Any clue as to why I’d pick this verse to go with South Dakota? … well….Does the word “Mt. Rushmore” mean anything to you? If you have the chance, you really need to run through this area of South Dakota. It’s one thing to see a postcard of the famous 4 faces, but when you get there and walk under them, the immenseness of it hits you. It gives you a glimpse of the scope of imagination the sculptor must have had to be able to design such a huge face that has a beauty from a distance. Working in the rock up close he’d not see what we see miles away. That gave me a healthy respect for his artistry as I meandered along the half mile pathway that gave me different views of the faces.
Anyone who likes the “Wild West” would also want to go to Deadwood. It’s only about 50 miles from Mt. Rushmore, and gives you a feel of what life was like as this country was settled. The Boot Hill Cemetery has the graves of Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok and I enjoyed walking around there.
You do (or at least I do!) need to be careful – there’s a lot of twisty, winding roads and canyons out there. I was lost for over an hour trying to get out of there! :0(
For book lovers, you’ll want to head to De Smet, SD. We spent a day there touring the Laura Ingalls Wilder place. Having grown up on those books, Mom, Julie & I all wanted to see that place! (There’s also another house in Mansfield, Missouri, where Laura wrote her books. The De Smet house was where they lived during the time of “By the Shores of Silver Lake”.)
There’s many places of interest in South Dakota – it’s one state you need time if you want to explore a lot of the sites!

NORTH DAKOTA 
I Sam 27:10a And Achish said, Whither have ye made a road today?
Maybe this verse sounds a bit bizarre,  but it fits an episode in my life! I have lived almost at the ND border. Dad had a farm on the “two-mile” road for 12 years. (2 miles from the US border, but 7 miles from the crossing as we had to drive 5 miles west on a gravel road after the 2 miles north of the border.) So traveling on the I-29 in North Dakota is a ‘never-never’ road. Not only is it long (runs clear down the state) but it had the most horrible “cachung, cachung, cachung” bumps along it. Every 30 seconds you’d hit the next. For 12 years we lived with those cachunking thuds. (Never needed a chiropractor; just run that road, and it’ll realign all the bones in your body.)  Then Dad sold the farm and we moved away. So I didn’t use that road for years.
Imagine my shock when a few years ago, I made a trip and decided to cross on the I-29. I got on the road – and had smooth sailing. I thought, “Where’s the cachungs?” It so discombobulated me that I thought I’d made a mistake and gotten on the wrong road somehow. I even pulled over to ask someone. They just laughed when they reassured me that at long last that road finally got fixed! I felt like I’d lost something valuable and well-known! Oddest sensation ever! Do you ever have something that you take so much for granted that it’s not until you lose it, you realize it’s important? It was a huge family lesson for me. I don’t see my family often; we are spread far apart, so I need to value any time that I do have with them! (But I have to admit, once the oddness wore off, it was nice to be on a smooth road!)

​COLORADO - I Kings 7:5 And all the doors and posts were square, with the windows: and light was against light in three ranks.
            Now this may sound like a really weird verse, but whenever someone says “Colorado” my first thought is “square”. It’s not often a state or province is completely square, but this state is. Then to my mind, I-25 running north to south splits the square into 2 rectangles – the west side is the mountains, and the east side is the plains. I had an aunt that lived in CO, close to that invisible dividing line. Her family lived in the plains, but every time we came to visit, we’d cross that “line” and head into the mountains (and boy, did they know some trails!) They took us to some amazing places on twisting, winding roads. What floored me were signs that would be posted: In flash flood, please climb UP! I couldn’t believe people wouldn’t just have the common sense to do that; however my aunt assured me many times people think they can outrun/drive a flash flood, and don’t realize how phenomenally fast that water comes roaring down the canyons.
            And speaking of roaring water – I was crazy enough to sign my life away on another trip when I went to see friends that live in Colorado. We took a day to sightsee and did a whitewater rafting trip – “Just a short one” –that was more than long enough for me. It’s hard to keep a death grip on a raft for a few hours, but I managed. (I have never wanted to drown) … somehow we made it. Definitely a “been there, done that” (and even lived to tell about it) moment. I much preferred going to the “Garden of the Gods” and walking around all those amazing rock formations. I was able to get up there over Christmas one time when I was teaching in Texas, so had a day of skiing to add to my memories of interesting moments in Colorado! You could spend a long time there and not see everything if you are into nature. It abounds and is quite diversified – something for everyone’s taste.

​Prov 5:16 Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
Another state that is cowboy country. They are famous for their rodeos; however, to me, Wyoming is Old Faithful! Outside of driving through Wyoming my main memories of that place is the Yellowstone National Park, where we got to see Old Faithful blow several times. When Dad took me there as a child this famous geyser was faithfully shooting fountains of water straight up “to the heavens” or so my child’s mind deemed it. (I looked it up and it says 106-185 feet is the eruption height.) We got there just in time to see it; we walked, hiked and returned 60 minutes later to see it blow again….and 60 minutes later again. It seemed like a miracle to me; Moses only got the Red Sea to part once. God was making this boiling fountain shoot off every hour. I was absolutely fascinated by it.
Of course, there are many dude ranches if people are into that type of thing, as well as the rodeos, to give you an idea of what the country life is like (for a tourist). It’s more mundane when you actually live on a ranch/farm and have to battle the seasons. Again, the mountains are a mainstay for Wyoming tourism. This state doesn’t have as much flatland as Montana, so prepare to go up and down as you drive through it – and don’t forget to see Old Faithful. Over 150 years, and it’s still blowing!

​Montana has a bit of something for everyone. They have the wide open prairies to the east, with few people for the introverts. The Missouri River also flows along there and so is a scenic drive. But for the mountain lovers, just continue to the west and you’ll have the edge of the Rocky Mountains running north to south for exploring. The edge of Yellowstone National Park is in the SW corner of the state. For the city lovers, you will have to extend yourself; there are only a few larger spots and they are quite a distance apart.
Ps 50:10 For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. Montana is cowboy country – they have more cows than people here. So I thought this verse really applies to this state. It’s not called the big sky country for nothing! There’s lots of space and nothing-ness in this state –  depending on where you’re driving. I got onto some smaller roads and drove for what seemed like forever without meeting a single person/vehicle. After a few hours I began to wonder if I’d wandered into never-never land and was going to drive off the face of the earth. Then I got more practical and worried that I’d run out of gas. Three hours without a sign of a town. I headed back to the freeway, and was even more perturbed when I saw no one there either! That’s an eerie sensation – especially as I needed to navigate around a lot of rocks lying along the road. Made it seem so desolate. It was really windy as well; my car was being jarred around from gusts, but nothing that I couldn’t handle. You can imagine my relief when I finally saw an exit sign with gas. But as I pulled off the interstate and into the gas station, I groaned. The place was packed with vehicles. “Oh, boy, Steph. There must be a gas war on; wonder how Iong I’m going to be stuck here?” I managed to squeeze into a spare spot, and got out of my car to go talk to someone. All the way into the building people kept staring at me, and I couldn’t figure out why. Once inside, the cashier looked at me. “Did you just come in off that road?” “Yes, I did, why?” He snorted. “You’re either fearless or insane; that road is closed. They’re dynamiting for a controlled avalanche because of a mudslide.” I stared at him. “Oh! That’s why my car was shaking! I just thought it was really windy.” A pause and then a vale of laughter rolled over me. I blushed – and took a lot of ribbing from people over the next hour as the news of my drive through a dynamited avalanche spread to the parking lot. In my ignorance I travelled through the majority of the blasting time; I only had to wait the final hour with everyone else. But at least I didn’t have to worry about getting gas!

​ARIZONA
I would think most people, when asked the first thought that comes to their mind about Arizona, would be “the Grand Canyon”. And truthfully, it is an absolutely amazing spot in this amazing world. Job 30:6 states: to dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks. That verse describes the Canyon quite well, I think. If you have a fear of heights, then I don`t recommend you going close to the edge. I suppose it also depends where you are; at the time and place my family was there, we could go right up to the edge – and look down and down and down. When we were leaving the area, we met a man coming up with a pack mule out of the canyon. He`d been down there for a week (and in my mind, looked like he`d turned into Rip Van Winkle!) I guess a pack mule trip into the canyon is some people`s idea of an adventure – I have no desire whatsoever to do that. The heat, the strenuous stamina it takes – bluck. I’ll lazily enjoy my view of the beauty right from the top, thank you very much!
Of course, there’s much more to Arizona than just the Grand Canyon. You shift over to Flagstaff, for instance, and you’ll find yourself at 8,000 ft above sea level. I took a student there once to the university for an ACE International Student Convention. They had warned us flatlanders to allow the students involved in track to gradually jog and work into a run because the elevation would be hard on them. What no one mentioned was that my student would have nosebleeds for the first 3 days! Since I rarely get a nosebleed that really spooked me out; we had more than a few trips to the infirmary. Thankfully by the time we left, she had adjusted to the altitude.
The other big spot in people’s mind would probably be Phoenix. Lots of snowbirds from Canada head there. But I don`t like heat, so that wouldn’t be my choice. When I was teaching in northeastern Texas, I could barely handle the heat the first year or two. My sister would laugh at me when I was home for the summer and moaning about it. Well, my third year in Texas I get a call from my sister. She had started trucking and was on a long haul run, so was calling from a payphone in a Phoenix truck stop. “Steph, it’s so hot here, I’m standing on the pavement in the parking lot, and my flip flops are melting!!!” Ha! ‘Twas sweet to get a bit of my own back after her remarks to my moans about Texas heat.