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The end of the longest cross country highway in America in the wild and wonderful west

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Today is the first day since August 9th that we do not have a defined road destination.  Tom woke up feeling the loss of a plan and is going through an adjustment as he is a planner and a doer; I, on the other hand, feel uplifted.  I feel the weight of a big obligation lifted and am now in the land of the free.  Free to dream of what we are going to do in this next week, before home and garden responsibilities once again bring us back to Denman Island.  Yesterday, in Newport Oregon, we finished the route that Tom had carefully mapped out for us on Highway 20, with stops to include extra destinations.  The route is the longest highway in America and links the east and west coasts.  Tom's friends from Memphis TennesseeBoston to Newport Oregon...whose idea was that and why?  Well...we think we have a few of those answers when we finally hit the west...so here goes a few of my memories of the last week of our travels.     Leaving M...
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Corn, wheat, cattle,cowboys and the settling of the West...in the heartland of America

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Go west young man ....each step of the route now is bringing us to a place in America that is newer in history than the road past.  We are into the "heartland" of America and it's not hard to see that agriculture is key to this region.  Miles of land used for the growing of crops important to the livestock industry or the recent ethanol fuel development, hoping for a future time when fossil fuels are no longer the main source of power for all of us who are travelling these roads through America.   But let me begin by saying that when we planned this trip, I had hoped to visit the birthplace of my father, Madison, Wisconsin.  My Dad was the third child of young Italian immigrants who had moved from Molise province in the rocky rural area of southern Italy to find a better life.  Their parents and relatives had come via ship to New York, then Cleveland and my Father's four brothers had founded Di Rienzo Bros. monumental works in Madison.  I'm not exact...
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