Perhaps it was the age I was at, 24 or so, in the Army -- and uncertain of everything, except certain -- or so I thought --  in my knowing of nothing about my future or the meaning of anything.  The chances for the open road were spectacular and memorable.  And I was very much struck by the intensity, the inner something, of the scenery surrounding Colorado Springs in all directions.  It was an intensity that I had never experienced before, and that I have seldom felt since. 

This view was east of the city along a dirt road heading miles and miles stretching east toward Kansas, toward somewhere.  Clouds had begun to form.  Perhaps much later on that very day decades ago lightning and hail would be hitting the High Plains.