Travels with Charley

“"And then the late afternoon changed everything. As the sun angled the buttes and coulees the cliffs and sculptured hills and ravines lost their burned and dreadful look and glowed with yellow a rich browns and a hundred variations of red and silver grey, all picked out by streaks of coal black. It was so beautiful that I stopped near a thicket of dwarfed and wind warped cedars and junipers, and once stopped I was caught, trapped in color and dazzled by clarity of light. Against the descending sun the battlements were dark and clean-lined, while to the east, where the uninhabited light poured slantwise, the strange landscape shouted with color. And the night, far from being frightful, was lovely beyond thought, for the stars were close, and although there was no moon the starlight made a silver glow in the sky. The air cut my nostrils with dry frost. And for pure pleasure I collected a pile of dry dead cedar branches and built a small fire just to smell the perfume of the buring wood and to hear the excited crackle of the branches. My fire made a dome of yellow light over me, and nearby I heard a screech owl and a barking of coyotes, not howling but the short chuckling bark of the dark of the moon."

-John Steinbeck, "Travels with Charley"

Strikes a chord, doesn't it.”

“That was great! The words really painted the picture. Thanks for sharing!”

“Yes, it sure brings back some memories. I recall he was enchanted by the name, "Golden Valley," in the Minneapolis, Minnesota, area. He wanted to explore or visit there, but he flowed right through it, when stuck in heavy traffic on an interstate or super highway.”

“That is nice!

Very cool!

Thank you for posting that!

8)”

“He wrote this a bout the badlands of North Dakota”