The purpose of the online magazine Terrain.org is to search “for the interface — the integration — among the built and natural environments that might be called the soul of place”. Since 2016, in a “Letter to America” series, it has  been presenting post-election responses from writers, artists, scientists and thinkers across the United States. In one of the latest, Dave Rintoul, a biology professor at Kansas State University, muses on what he saw and learned on a recent road trip.