Ray Charles - America the Beautiful

Girl's Still Got It

For all of America’s issues, it’s still a beautiful place to be.

Follow me. Lighthouse glee at Acadia, pure Maine, photogenic as Liz Taylor in ‘58, oh Grand New England, America’s attic, where mysteries dwell in dusty roadside antique shops harboring delicate and delicious secrets of our origin, New Hampshire and Kancamugus leaf-peepers in the fall.

Onward to Boston and Fenway’s 37-foot most green of monsters, Cradle of Liberty Blues, one if by land, two if by sea, Seagrass-loaded Block Island, in Rhode Island, interconnected, unmarked maze paths, sweet, sweet Providence, Ivy League lobster, hope on the state flag, hope, the perpetual anchor, Village Mystic, seaport sensation, ocean breathes salty, now and forever. New Netherlands Adirondacks, skyscrapers tickling the belly of the sky, the way that’s broad, bombers in the Bronx, metropolitans moving this way, that, Jersey devils and Paterson Great Falls, careening 77 feet, tall and proud, proud Passaic, brotherly love and Penn’s Woods, Land of the Pit Dweller, Rust Belt bounty, Lake Erie shores with Presque Isle sunsets, boldest in the lower 48, Virginias, both of ‘em and D.C. Village Green Preservation National Mall heroics. That fine Shenandoah sublimity, Old Rag with Tommy J’s Monticello on the Hill, casting an eye on his school, the wa-hoo-wa wild ones, Baltimore, Bawlmer, Charm City chaos, cousin to the Motor City, Calvert Cliffs, Carroll Creek, Eddie Poe haunts the houses, hills, and aren’t we all strangely thankful? Blue Ridge Parkway, 469 miles of paradise, God’s autumnal paintbrush, greatest drive, best drive, you decide, ain’t that America?

Georgia peaches, Cumberland Island perfection, overgrown oaks, wide-marsh wildlife, and a Scarlet O'Hara cocktail - cranberry juice, splash dash of lime, SoCo to your heart’s desire, sip sweetly, Wetlands Florida, Everglades, evergreen, Land of the Gator and Seminole, winding its way from Atlantic Ocean to Keys for all doors, to Gulf Coast Creole color and flavor, Dry Tortuga pirates, Gulf Stream crazy from the heat so have another Cuba Libre. Bayou boogie, Atchafalaya magnolia blossoms, Crescent Park, Jelly Roll Morton’s playground, blue notes turning red and hot, epic stargazing at Hawksbill Crag, Ozarks perched over Buffalo National River valleys, Great Smoky Mountains morning fog, moonshine, Red River Gorge, Cumberland Falls moonbow, rare and divine, Hoosier Kissing Bridges, Beanblossom, cascading Cataract Falls, 86 feet of flawless, Michigan Kitch-iti-kipi, Ojibwe Mirror of Heaven, Sleeping Bear Dunes rising, 450 feet then gently sloping to crystalline lakes, Apostle Islands prayers, River Running Through a Red Place, Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad, oh depot, depot, take me there transcendent track, Oglala Lakota badlands, sun shifts in the sky, sets, then colors explode on rocks painted by primordial creator spirits. Trip down the Going-to-the-Sun Road and kiss all the gods at Glacier National, then the two grands - Prismatic and Tetons - a rainbow-ringed eye emerging from the Earth and jagged edges of Earth jutting two miles above the prairie, Great Sand Dunes transported from Sahara, freedom found in the sand hundreds of feet in the air. Junction of Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave finds Zion - Towers of the Virgin, Sundial and Witch Head, Court of the Patriarchs, sprawling gypsum dune field at White Sands, Shiprock, volcanic plume like a villain’s castle.

Narrow, undulating Antelope Canyon, sunlight through the striated stone. Shoshone Falls falls and falls down 212 feet down into Snake River, the Palouse exploding monochromatic green of every shade, Pacific Northwest green, verdant, Oneonta Gorge basalt walls and you’re in high fantasy. Pacific Coast starry night highway alive and Big Sur standing watch over bright blue ocean, Sierra Nevada Yosemite, salute El Capitan… America the beautiful indeed.