Destination: Elm Mott

 September 2, 2010

I had great company on the five-day drive south: the man after whom I was named—Robert W. Smith himself—my dad. As we chatted during our time together, we realized that it had been over a decade since we had spent so much time together. We both were grateful for the opportunity to be in the company of the other.

As we drove South, the landscape surprised us. It seemed more like Montana at times, Merritt, BC at other times. The forest disappeared shortly after Seattle, never really to return in the following four and a half days (there were small patches of forest, to be sure; but they were quite small—taking little time to pass through, and quickly ceding the landscape to shrubs, bushes, and grasses).

The temperature increased the farther South we drove; but in an unexpected way. Instead of being uncomfortable immediately, it increased incrementally; thus the heat never really became an issue until the last two days. Without air-conditioning, I had expected to feel so overwhelmed by the sun and latent heat that we would resort to driving through the night and early morning. Instead, we drove during ‘normal’ times (daytime).

There were many great sights but two that warrant mention are snow summit in Wyoming, and Pueblo Pecos National Historic site in New Mexico. After days on interstate highways, my dad and were looking for something a little more scenic (or at least a little more off the beaten path). We found it first in Wyoming. We wound along a secondary highway into the forest (a rare treat on the route we took) and soon found ourselves near a mountain summit. We drove in freezing temperatures on highway 130 between Ryan Park and Centennial.

Next we chose to veer off the quickest route to Waco to enjoy some history in New Mexico. The detour added four hours to our day.  We found ourselves enjoying a walk through an unearthed settlement with a 1200 year old history at a national historic site near Pecos (http://www.nps.gov/peco/).  We really enjoyed learning about the people, the engineering, and the conflicts at one geographical region.  It was also refreshing to take a break from driving towards our destination.

When we finally did arrive at our destination, we were warmly greeted by the interns, live0in volunteers, staff, and others here on the farm. The drive was enjoyable, but it was great to reach our new home.