It’s hard to live in Texas and not be familiar with the state
flower, the bluebonnet. For this entry I was going to talk about my trip to Zilker where I planned on finding a pristine location on the running trail along town lake. I did go over there but was on the drive. I really found fascinating was the buffers of Highway 71. I pulled over my Mazda on to the emergency lane. I spent some time just looking at the flowers that made such an ugly
piece of infrastructure into a sight to be seen.
All you could hear was the wind created by moving cars, trucks and SUVs.However only it beautiful but the weather was a marvel even while standing on dirty asphalt.. Temperatures were in the low 70s and the was shining. There was not a cloud in sight. Wildlife was scarce in this area but that was probably a good thing for the wildlife and the people traveling in cars moving at speeds of up to 70mph. In American Culture, we never think of natural beauty and highways to be one in the same. For me this enhances my view on what beauty is but many would challenge it.I see it as a n
eed because I think must acknowledge the beauty of human ingenuity. We cannot ignore it in urban space. Aldo Leopold in his book A Sand County Almanac supports the idea in a more overbearing way as he states “both ideas were forced on us (179) The highway and the state flower are such a contrast.
