I was traveling through eastern Washington this past week and noticed how the landscape has changed. Instead of amber waves of grain there were wind turbines and fields of grapes. Of course it’s not all grapes, there’s still rolling hills covered with other crops. But farming has changed. It’s no longer the family farm, but mostly medium sized businesses. Farms used to be the size one family could take care of. Today with the newer and much more efficient equipment, the size of each field is much larger. From the air, the way most of us travel, we see large circles of green as gigantic sprinkler systems water the various crops across the plains.
Most of our travel is at the speed of a jet crossing all of America in less than a day. A century and half ago a day’s travel would have been twenty miles. How did each settler decide where to stop and stake out their homestead? All of them didn’t travel to California, but some decided to stop along the way. The beauty you can see at the speed of a horse or on a bicycle can be awe inspiring and sometimes I think we are missing the sights and sounds of our great land. I tried to bring part of that beauty to life in my book Scent of Danger, as my protagonist rode his bicycle across the U. S. trying to find his way back from tragedy. http://www.amazon.com/Scent-Danger-Tim-Arnold/dp/0595484492/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1366334942&sr=1-1&keywords=scent+of+danger%2C+tim+arnold
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