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Rediscovering the Joys of Non-deserts

I am developing an intense appreciation for a couple things here, in the inland Northwest.  Perhaps I owe it to an overdose of the color brown that I got in the Southwest.  

The grass is lush and succulent.  Who ever thought a person could get this excited over grass?


I need to learn about the "motion" mode of photography that my smartphone is pushing.  It was delightful to watch this tall, lush grass fluttering in a breeze.  Delightful!

So much of the land in the western states is useless agriculturally, that is, to the plow.  How lucky the human race was to have learned how to convert dry grasslands into meat and other useful products.  A mountain biker can see grasslands as paradise because it means they will ride on soil, instead of rubble.

My entire skin is drinking in the moderate humidity.  It is so nice to be able to wear sockless sandals up here, with no fear of the skin on my heels cracking, painfully.  Perhaps moderate humidity is under-rated simply because 'the medium is the message', that is, it doesn't photograph particularly well.

After yesterday's bike ride, the Little Cute One and I were relaxing in the camper, when I heard thunder.  That was a bit of a surprise, because it was completely sunny.

Well, not completely.  As the weather radar maps showed, we were camped right under a yellow blob on the map, a spirited thunder-cell.


Watch out for those yellow blobs on the radar maps!  And yet, we got no wind or hail.  In fact, we only got a few sprinkles.

It is necessary to keep an eye on rain forecasts when you are camping in the backcountry in a two-wheel-drive rig.  Fortunately it is manageable because the backcountry roads are graveled and improved in this part of the country.  I am careful to camp with a downhill glide to the nearest graveled road.  The graveled road is one of the technological miracles of three generations ago.  People don't think much about it, today.   But it improved roads, relative to dirt, more than pavement (tarmac) does, relative to gravel.



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