Don't Knock the Plains Till You've Walked Them

Anyone else realize that the Wall Street Journal has a travel section? It took a recession for me to ever pay much attention to the WSJ. Well, for many years. My first job out of college in 1992 was rewriting wire stories and WSJ articles for an Oklahoma City-based financial service that provided news blips for east-coast traders. I had to wake at 3.30am to get there in time to do it. The sort of thing that India handles now. I was too tired to know what I was doing.

Anyway, a recent post on WSJ outlines travel writers worth reading. The author, Cynthia Crossen, writes of one of my favorite writers too: 'Ian Frazier charmed me through one of the most boring landscapes in the world -- America's Great Plains.'

Boring huh? I wonder if Cynthia's ever been? Real travelers realize to check age-old cliches and see things for themselves. My first Lonely Planet job was updating the Great Plains for their USA guide. I turned down a slot on the Eastern Caribbean guide for it -- and it easily remains my best trip ever.

Those who see no beauty in the plains -- which roll subtly like the prehistoric sea floors that they are -- shouldn't knock them till they've walked them (and I maintain that Nebraska's panhandle is one of the great underrated destinations for it). Or detoured off the main interstate by car. Go to short horizons. When you can't see far it's often because the old sea floor bottoms out, leading to a stunning vista for miles. Like being on a mountaintop without the altitude sickness.

And no one else is around.

Cynthia oughta re-read Frazier's book.