The Idiots love James Taylor… how about this oldie?
“I guess my feet know where they want me to go
walking on a country road.
Take to the highway, won't you lend me your name?
Your way and my way seem to be one and the same.
Mamma don't understand it, she wants to know where I've been.
I'd have to be some kind of natural born fool to want to pass that way again,
But I could feel it on a country road.”
Long-time readers have shared some exotic experiences with the Idiots... rough train rides in China and Kenya, bouncing across rutted tracks amongst elephants in Tanzania, sunrise over Machu Picchu and Haleakala… but sometimes “adventures” can be smaller, more intimate… like a simple walk along a country road.
There are numerous species of agave Blue agave is the source of tequila. Mezcal is made from other agaves. Some of the smaller agaves can send up towering flower stalks.
The trees have tales to tell. The environment is harsh. Drought is punctuated by floods. Intensely hot summers alternate with frigid winters. Lightning, fire, wind and insects attack. The resulting twists and scars give character denied to more sheltered plants.
The trees defy the wind… grasses ignore it, bending without breaking.
High above, the rocks make dramatic statements. Fallen spires make natural bridges in the sky. For millennia, humans have seen forms in the rocks and names often get attached. Idiot She named on such feature “Give a Mouse a Cookie”.
One doesn’t have to the skies for stories. A close look at the rock surfaces reveals tales of fire and pressure… and magma that ran like taffy.
Rock does not give itself to soil easily. Before plants can take hold, lichens form colorful colonies and slowly, steadily dissolve the minerals of the rock surfaces.
Lichens are not a single organism… they are a colony of symbiotic species. Algae or some kinds of bacteria can dissolve rock – but they would wash away with the first rain. Fungus has no chlorophyll, so it can’t make its own food – but it has a fibrous structure that can attach to rock and provide a framework for the other species.
The net result… a cooperative colony that will eventually turn rock to soil.
After erosion and lichens and simple plants crack and shatter the bedrock, woody plants tenaciously force their roots into crevices, clinging tenaciously to cliff sides and creating habitats for more plants and animals.
Where do the roots come from? Where do they stop? A roadside photo becomes an allegory for the mystery of life…
