Switchback just returned from roughly 13 days on the road. Brian and I were able to play in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Colorado. We stayed the night at long-time Switchback friends the Harvey's in Salina, Kansas. So five states traveled into, around and through. Each one of these states has their own unique beauty. Over the years, I have grown to treasure the Great Plains, especially what are called the High Plains. These are found in eastern Colorado, and western Kansas, western Nebraska, western Oklahoma and northwest Texas. As one drives west on I-80 in Iowa, one is literally starting to climb towards the Rocky Mountains, albeit slowly. Still it is noticeable to one who has driven the route many times and the terrain also gives it away. The cornfields of the Midwest slowly become rangeland, with those oh-so-far views that stretch for miles. A sign announcing “branding inspection enforced” is another giveaway. No one brands any animal in the Midwest, that’s a Western practice. Finally, the plains give way to the foothills and eventually the mountains of Colorado.
I have learned to appreciate and love the mountains of Colorado. They are higher, less jagged and more massive than the Grand Tetons of Wyoming. The Tetons will always be the most beautiful range on the planet in my book, but Colorado mountains in the summer are a sight to behold.
The one thing about them is how they create a weather pattern high up past 14,000 feet. In August, these mountains will gather clouds around them, slowly massing and piling up as they try to climb over the peaks. Pretty soon a mountain storm is formed and across the distance, rolling across the forests and covering the peaks in a deep grey-blue are the thunderheads. These monsters roar in thunder and the sound of them echo across the hills. The animals and birds get silent and if one is lucky enough to be far enough away from civilization, one can actually hear and feel the air pressure as it changes. My mother always kept a small sign on the refrigerator in Wyoming “when thunder roars-get indoors!” and that is very much an important thing to note. Lightning up in the mountains can strike fast and far from what seems to be the front of the storm. My friend Keith Riker knew a fellow up in Colorado who was struck not once, but twice by such lightning. It is something to be respected, as if the mountains themselves are lashing out at the pesky humans encroaching on their forests and highlands.
Alas, along the front range of Colorado, humans are becoming a massive problem. Everyone wants to live in Colorado and enjoy the mountains. Like anything else, this gives way to rapid and in some instances, pretty deplorable development. A far-off mountain vista will reveal a multi-million dollar manse or three, arrogantly set up high on cliffs that overlook other people’s million dollar homes. While these homes are magnificent, they also are sitting ducks for the next wildfire. Meanwhile, the Denver metro area has almost 3 million people living there. Not all of them are able to live in luxury, but still there in the shadows of those Colorado mountains, they can look out and up at the beauty that exists up there. But make no mistake, Denver is as urban and ugly as big cities come.
Still, in spite of all the problems, the urban growth, the suburban sprawl, the trophy homes perched where they and their owners can be seen, the mountains endure. And that is the thing I felt gazing out at them. The mountains will have the last laugh with us little humans. And they remind us of their power every time they hurl a summer storm from their heights.
As we finished our last show and gazed at the sunset, I slowly turned to the east. There those unleashed storms were lighting up those High Plains, picking up humidity and rapidly getting larger and larger. The flash of lighting non-stop as they move with intimidating speed. A day or two from now and one of those mountain storms will roll across Chicago. I will enjoy it and think of those far-off mountain giants of Colorado, sending me a reminder that I am only human.
READ MARTIN'S OTHER BLOG HERE.