Mountain Ranges of the USA - A Change of Pace Because We Need It

I was three paragraphs down in a COVID-19 post, and said "Screw it. My friends don't need doom, gloom or facts (although facts are a good thing to have sometimes). My friends need something a bit more uplifting because it's tough times for us all right now." So I'm choosing to be a bit patriotic today and give you some photos of the USA - from Sea to Shining Sea. 

The Appalachian Mountains are the first set of three major mountain
ranges that stripe the nation of the USA. Forming the Easternmost stripe,
these are the oldest of the mountains, but old doesn't mean easy. They're
still a challenging mountain range to cross over. Daniel Boone explored
these mountains as he crossed over to Tennessee, and many people take
on the task of walking the Great Appalachian Trail every year. 

The Appalachian Trail (red line from bottom - Georgia - through into
Maine at the top) defines the mountains, which go by many names. In
the South, they are called The Great Smoky Mountains, moving north
they are renamed into the Cumberland and Allegheny Mountains. In
New York the name is the Catskill Mountains and they're the
Adirondack and Green mountains in New Hampshire and
Vermont. The mountains themselves continue into
Newfoundland, Canada. 

The Rocky Mountains are my mountains. These are the peaks I
saw every morning as I walked to school, that I drove into when
I needed to get away from things, that I hiked in and played in and
lived in for part of every year. The Rocky Mountains are younger
than the Appalachians and are massive, brooding, hulking and
unforgiving. 

The Rocky Mountains extends from Alaska through
New Mexico, bisecting and separating the Great
Plains of the USA from the far western states of
Washington, Oregon, Nevada and California. These
mountains take up 2/3 of Colorado and almost
1/2 of New Mexico, the state of my youth. These
mountains were my playground. I miss them
sometimes. 

The Rocky Mountains are the backbone of the
USA. They are a wall of sheer-faced rock barricading
and bisecting the nation. 

The final mountains in the USA are the newest and sharpest - the Sierra
Nevada range in the Southern portion, and the Cascade mountains in
the Northwest. These are the mountains of Yosemite National Park, as well
as the volcanic peaks of Mount Shasta and the infamous Mount St. Helens. 

The Sierra Nevada range is on the far left, the Cascades aren't even
identified, but they are offshoots from the upper Rocky Mountains mixed
with volcanic peaks built by tectonic forces over millennia. Some of the
most outstanding peaks in the nation are on our far Western shores. 

So, there you have it. Instead of talking about coronavirus, which I suspect will be a part of our lives for a very long time, I decided to share a bit of my country with all of you, because good or bad, I do love it here. 

Stay safe, be well, and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Wearing and Flying the Flag

Earlier this week it was Canada Day (waving "Hello" to my Canadian friends), and tomorrow will be July 4th, Independence Day, here in the USA. These are days of celebration - basically large, nation-wide birthdays for our nations, and as such are celebrated throughout the country with feats, music, and often, fireworks. There will be a lot of flag-waving going on, and that sparked my interest in flags here in the USA. 

Want a flag? This place in Atlanta, Georgia has just the flag for you. 

We're a bit flag crazy here. It's not that other nations are less patriotic than we are, just that we tend to wave the flag, wear the flag, and post the flag everywhere here in the USA. Public buildings, of course - governmental halls of justice, etc - always fly the flag; always the federal flag, but also often the state flag and maybe the city one as well. But in the USA, businesses of all kinds as well as some individual people fly the national flag. The flag is everywhere. 

My own sticker is probably similar in size, but it is a
re-positionable static cling sticker that I have on the
lower passenger side front window. My car does wear
the flag, though, along with millions of others
throughout the USA. 

I admit that I have a flag sticker on my car's windshield. The sticker was given to me by an acquaintance right after 9/11. I put it on my car that day, and with the exception of moving it from my PT Cruiser to my Mazda CX-5 when I bought the new car, it's still there. I don't fly the flag at home often, but I actually do own a flag which was left in the house when we bought it, and there is a flagpole bracket near the front door. Other people in the neighborhood have individual flagpoles centrally located in their gardens and fly their flags daily. 

Abbie Hoffman wore a flag shirt in 1970. 

I remember people getting arrested in the 1960's for wearing the flag, or burning the flag during protests of the military draft and the Vietnam War. It's part of my personal history, not just something to look at with the curiosity of "Look at what those hippies were doing back then!" attitudes. A lot of people were arrested for desecrating the flag. Now wearing the flag barely causes a blink - the flag and its' image have become almost commonplace. Is this a good thing? Hard to say. 

The flag has become mainstream. Here's a flag
dress designed by Tommy Hilfiger. 

So, since tomorrow is a holiday (in spite of the fact that it's still my normal Wednesday "day off" and I'll still be shopping, doing laundry, and cleaning house while having to clean around my Hubby instead of on my own schedule) I won't be posting. I wish all of you a happy and safe Fourth of July, and I'll be back on Thursday. Enjoy your Tuesday and celebrate with your own families on Wednesday.