Less so, the dead fields of Arkansas, the dried-up rivers of Illinois, or the burned out pastures of Oklahoma.
FORBES: Beneath a Parched Surface, the Great Midwest Drought of 2012 Doesn't Go Social
In most places, though, are the remains of dried-up marshlands, barren clay and salt basins that contain the dunes' dramatic foil: the dead acacia or "camel thorn" trees.
Trust me, I made the audition batch with a combination of supermarket colors and almost-dried-up paste color from last year, and only the knowledge that I could improve the color kept me going.
They were also required to carry all their equipment for the duration of the ultra-marathon -- from food and sleeping gear to an anti-venom pump and glow sticks -- as they battled with weariness and dehydration whilst snaking their way past rolling dunes, steep-sided uplands, dried-up lakes and abandoned settlements in the hostile heat.
"The money dried up -- and it dried up right after the Cleveland debate, and we never could get it back, " a source close to Walker said of the August 6 debate.
Though its career as a hit-maker dried up shortly after its 1986 debut, Crowded House continued to churn out glorious power-pop singles through the early '90s, following the Top 10 gems "Don't Dream It's Over" and "Something So Strong" with a sturdy string of tracks that deftly balance briskness and melancholy.
So during the financial crisis, as trade finance dried up, the Export-Import Bank lived up to its mission and stepped up to fill the void.
Russia receives very little money now from the United States in direct aid -- which dried up a long time ago.
In the past, banks would agree at little cost to provide back-up lines for commercial-paper issuers in case their access to the market dried up.
ECONOMIST: Problems in America's most efficient market for money
"A good decade prior to national prohibition most of the south-east had dried itself up, " he adds.
Perhaps more importantly, borrowing that much on wholesale markets is neither a stable or prudent way to fund any bank - as the UK taxpayers found out to their cost when Northern Rock, Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS all went to the brink of collapse after their access to wholesale funds dried up in 2007-8.
Many tributaries running through the forest had dried up due to wide-spread clear-cutting and they said fertilizers were polluting the water.
At this year's event last month, he was looking to sell the Ontario-based gold miner after financing dried up.
But in the second half of extra-time, the goal chances dried up until Iniesta cropped up to score the winner.
But student debt is quickly rising, in part due to higher tuitions, but also because alternative ways of paying for college such as home-equity loans have dried up.
As securitisation dried up, so did the primary-lending market.
China's economy would probably still expand by around 8-9% even if export growth dried up.
It was useful to have state-controlled lenders when credit from abroad dried up at the end of 2008.
For 6 years, until people started forgetting to remember and funding dried up, we reached several thousand first-responders and family members.
Those sales have dried up while purchases have increased from emerging-market nations.
Foreign currency which Iran used to receive for its oil and gas exports has also dried up in the wake of an EU-wide embargo.
To make matters worse, endowments (and their returns) have shrunk, money from philanthropy has dried up and those universities that provide need-based aid have suddenly found their students are needier.
ECONOMIST: Many American universities are in financial trouble
With 15 minutes played Paul Burns tried to lift the Doonhamer's spirits with a promising run into the penalty area, but found opposition in the shape of his team-mate Stewart Kean and the move dried up.
They soon found that duct tape leaked air so badly much of the cooling and heating was wasted--and that the tape frequently shrunk, dried up or separated.
Federal stimulus money to help cash-strapped state governments funnel money to schools has dried up.
The next morning, she walked to the Preobrazhensky market to get groceries and fresh fish, following the crowds rolling their handcarts down a footpath lined with pensioners holding up hand-knitted shawls and strings of dried mushrooms.
The current-account deficit, now around 5% of GDP, is a key factor: if capital flows into America slowed even more sharply, or dried up, the adjustment involved in reducing the current-account deficit could be painful both for America and the rest of the world.
Through a sidelight at the rear door he watched the flames race in the wind, flowing under his car and fanning out to light the corncrib, the smokehouse, and the big sagging barn, which went up in a howl of crackling lumber and dried-out hay.
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