Blue Highways: A Journey into America

In Idaho, Heat-Moon contacts a man named Fred Tomlins with whom he once made a brief acquaintance and who told Heat-Moon to look him up if ever he was in that part of the country. Tomlins, an Airforce veteran who flew missions in Vietnam, takes Heat-Moon on his Cessna plane for an impromptu sightseeing jaunt over the famed Snake River. They discuss the Palouse, a distinct agricultural region that overlaps the state boundaries between Washington, Idaho, and a sliver of Oregon. Tomlins briefly explains the soil composition that makes the Palouse such a productive agricultural region. There are three different layers of soil types, the bottom of which is “loess” or “wind-blown glacier dust” (249). Underneath all this soil—estimated by Tomlins to be up to 200 feet deep—is ancient volcanic rock.

Upon leaving the Tomlins residence, Heat-Moon picks up another hitchhiker, this one an older man named Arthur O. Bakke, a devout Seventh Day Adventist who has committed his life to preaching the Christian gospel. All his worldly possession is packed into an aluminum case that he carries with him as he sets out to proselytize. Heat-Moon, not much a fan of organized religion, comes to like Bakke despite their obviously opposing worldviews.