sue sherman family: June 4, Tomah Bound

Grand Forks and towns south of there, such as Hillsboro are in the Red Valley in North Dakota. It's a very fertile area for growing crops. I was trying to capture in the picture above...the rich, black soil against the beautiful, green grass. The landscape was flat with farm fields as far as you could see and I thought to myself that this was truly an example of America's bread basket at its best.

Then all of a sudden that beautiful picture was interrupted by a smell that could have made you gag. The picturesque valley that we drove into, now had a haze as far as you could see. At first I thought it was stagnant water or possibly one of those farms with thousands of cattle. Shortly we realized it was neither; the smell was coming from this plant that was spilling out its contents into the blue sky above. You could follow this stream of expulsion all the way across the horizon. It was a sugar beet plant; but shouldn't sugar smell sweet? It was so sad to see

what is being done to our environment.

Once you get through the metropolis areas, this is how I envision Minnesota. Maybe that's because we try to spend more time by the lakes, rivers, and streams rather than the cities.

Guess you have to have power for the people. With progress, may come problems. People are concerned the effects these high transmission lines may have on people and animals. The quality of life of people, animals, and even plants may be affected by the electromagnetic fields these high-powered lines create.

We saw this helicopter hovering over one of the poles and figured it had something to do with the installation of the power lines. As we got closer, we could see some type of cable suspended from the helicopter and a person near the end of the cable. The helicopter was moving with this person flying through the air. We think that they fly the person to the tops of the poles to make some type of connection with the power lines. Can you imagine having a job like this? Wonder if they're covered by Lloyd's of London?

Signs of Wisconsin

Only a matter of an hour away from Tomah and I see something that I have never seen and hope I will never see again. We were passing a semi and I happened to glance toward the truck driver. All I could see was the left, bare foot of the driver steering his eighteen wheeler! I had my camera and I wish I could have gotten a picture of it. I hate being the only one with this picture in my head! We passed by fast and I didn't see if the right foot was also on the steering wheel. And all this time we have been worried about inattentive driving while using a cell phone.