God Bless America

Can you think of the name of the song which has the line, "From the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans white with foam..."?  Of course.  God Bless America !

We have literally gone from the mountains to the prairies today. From about 10,000 feet of altitude to about 5,000 or so.  From peaks of rocky grandeur to flat, or rolling, fields and farms producing the bounty of our country. And tonight we sleep in Hygiene, Colorado.

Hygiene is a small town just 30 minutes north of Boulder, on the very beginning of the mostly  flat, rolling, prairie that continues east for almost 1,000 miles to, actually, the Alleghenies. The deer, elk, mountain sheep, and marmot (yes, marmot- seen near Maroon Bells, Aspen) crossing signs are replaced by yellow diamonds with tractor silhouettes on them.

Founded by Rev. Jacob Flory of the United Church of the Brethren in 1883 this town was not planted out of the search for gold, silver, or even hay. Rev. Flory built his 'Hygiene Home' tuberculosis sanitarium here for sufferers from the east. He planned to find health for all. His facility was not the only one of its kind in this area.  The famous Kellogg family had their hands in nearby also, and part of the remains of another sanitarium in Coal Creek Canyon, above Boulder, still exist.

But there is nothing left in Hygiene of Rev. Flory's time here but his old Brethren Church, now a community center. Most sanitariums have disappeared as medicines allowed the sufferers to medicate where they lived, without moving across the country.

But Hygiene does have one thing from the nineteenth century that still remains.  The wonderful, clean, air.  Mona noticed it as soon as she stepped out of the coach when we parked for the July Fourth Weekend here at Hygiene United Methodist Church. The air is crisp, fresh, and friendly.  And so are the people.

Rev. Dawnmarie Fiechtner was happy to allow us to park out back of the Christian Ed Building, and invited us to Bible Study tomorrow night.  We just may attend, and we look forward to worshiping with the crowd here Sunday morning.

We'll have to wait till tomorrow to meet more of the town's residents, though we had a nice conversation with a couple married 37 years in the Praha Hungarian Restaurant just out of the center of town (pictured above). The closest neighbors we have met so far are the horses in the field next to the church prayer garden.


We'll be back in the mountains again during our time in central Colorado. Our son Jim may be able to visit a couple of places with us he'd like to photograph.  Mona needs to get to the Nederland post Office to pick up the second package of mail sent by Chris and Jenn, our daughters, to our attention there c.o. General Delivery. And we have been invited to spend a week with the O'Rourkes in their dream home overlooking Russell Gulch just outside of Central City.

But plains, mountains, or oceans (Mona is counting the days until we get to Hilton Head Island in October for the beaches and good friends there), God has surely blessed us with an amazing land to care for and enjoy. Thank you God, for the gift, and the responsibility, of caring for our land. And for allowing Mona and I to experience it.

-Ken