Some Thoughts and Observations from a Cross-Country Drive

Some random thoughts and observations from my "delightful" drive across the country (primarily through the Bible Belt)

-They claim Ohio is at a lower elevation than New Mexico. However, my car was having troubles dealing with uphill portions on the first day of driving, and it seems I was PERPETUALLY going uphill through both Eastern New Mexico and Western Oklahoma, as well as almost all of Missouri (though the car had no problems there). I know there was a dropoff in elevation in Texas, but I'm beginning to think we've all been lied to about elevation in this country.

-I hated Oklahoma the first two times I drove through it, yet this time, it didn't seem so bad at all. It couldn't have been the timing - I drove through it in August once before. I think it had to do with direction. Knowing I was leaving the "great state" of Texas for ANY state improved my mood. Plus, there was something about the red dirt that was kind of nice. At the same time, it definitely made me think, "that CAN'T be that good for farming," as well as offer fond memories of "Grapes of Wrath" and make me wish for some color photographs of the Dust Bowl. As beautiful as the famous black and white photos are, something tells me part of it's sheer terrifying grandiosity would be more apparent if you could see all that red dirt in the sky.

-Another nice thing about Oklahoma? Wind Power. I only saw one station (the Weatherford), but it was impressive, and it's just one of many scattered around the state. How about that? A state using its primary resource (wind) to generate power? I hate this about New Mexico. They take water, the rarest commodity in terms of power-resources in New Mexico, and insist that it be the main source for the state. Nevermind the perpetual winds much of the state sees, as well as the frequent winds much of the rest of the state sees. Why use something that A) New Mexico has plenty of, and B) doesn't run out when some asshole wants to water his lawn in the desert, when we could use the MAGNIFICENT (i.e. often really low) Rio "Grande." Note to New Mexico: learn from Oklahoma.

-Gotta love Groom, TX. They claim on I-40 that they have the "Largest Cross in the Western Hemisphere!" It's absurd, a gaudy thing you can see from about 15 miles away in either direction. Funny thing is, they don't have the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere - they don't even have the largest in the US (our Latin American and Canadian sources can neither confirm nor deny the hemispheric claims). Turns out, as I was driving along on I-70 just east of St. Louis, said tallest-cross is in Effingham, Illinois, coming in at 198 feet (8 more than in Groom). I don't know which I take pleasure and satisfaction in more - that in Texas, there are people who lie in order to look holier than thou (numerous adds and signs saying pull over in TX, as opposed to none in Illinois - you hardly see the thing until you're on top of it), or the fact that Texas was outdone by the Midwest. Is it something to be PROUD of for Illinois? Probably not, but anything that makes Texas look even dumber than it already does is OK by me...

-The best thing about driving from New Mexico to Ohio, rather than the other way around? It's leaving the Bible Belt for the Rust Belt, instead of abandoning the civilization of the Rust Belt for the fundamentalism of the Bible Belt. Western Missouri was actually the worst. You can't go five miles without seeing some "holier than thou" billboard put up to remind you of the millions of ways you sin, and how only attending some crappy evangelical church that looks nothing like a church and that is full of happy white people raising their hands and praising the lord jesus christ while singing 7-11 songs (7 words you repeat 11 times) will save you. Just as bad are the ones that simply condemn, without even offering a church to attend (such as the one that quoted the part from the Bible claiming that if you get divorced and settle down with another woman, you're evil - like nobody in Missouri has been divorced). Mercifully, this started to disappear by St. Louis, and, right on cue, as I got to the outskirts of Indianapolis, there were Union signs and bumper stickers in far greater abundance than there had been in TX, OK, and MO (where there had been a grand total of zero). Illinois offered the "no-religious-signs" benefit, but as soon as I hit Indiana, I was back in union territory, and never left it. Nice to see some people have their priorities focused on better things than your salvation as they perceive it.

-Finally, many of my west-of-the-mississippi friends and I have gotten into many debates on the nature of Ohio. I insist it is Midwest, as any Ohioan will, while these Westerners all call it "east," barring one from North Dakota who knows Ohio is the "gateway to the Midwest." (Whatever happened to the autonomy of self-identification anyways?) I believe I'm right for numerous reasons - economic, political, cultural, social, etc. I can point to millions of ways Ohio is like Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, etc. in those terms in ways that it has no resemblance to New York, Maine, Maryland, even Pennsylvania (the Amish notwithstanding). However, having done the drive again, it just reimpresses on me my absolute conviction that, however small the "east" may seem to those westerners, Ohio is the Midwest. I really began to notice this in Missouri, based on environment and economy. The rolling hills of Missouri, the industrial towns of St. Louis and Indianapolis, the farming in the rural areas - there wasn't a lick of difference between Missouri and Ohio and in between. Sure, Illinois and Indiana are flatter, but so is Western Ohio, while Missouri looked just like the Northern and southeastern part of Ohio. I know in my heart of hearts that Ohio IS the Midwest, and not out of any fear of being considered like New York, but out of the simple fact that Ohio has almost nothing in common with places like New York, Maine, Maryland, or Virginia (which all really ARE "east," though Virginia's kind of in-between in the popular mindset of "East" and "South).