I love Kansas back roads THIS MUCH!Seriously. I stopped to take this picture right before I had to get on I-70, a few miles before Goodland, KS, if you're playing along at home, which is about 20 miles before the border with Colorado. I was sad to see the vast Kansas prairie go, as well as the back roads which I had so greatly enjoyed traversing.
The sky goes on and on; it is so huge and yet so close you feel you can touch it. The ribbons of road, the fields of green, of brown - they are interminable, but somehow comforting. I loved every bit of my travels on the back roads of Kansas.
I woke up in Salina this morning, not quite in time to catch the full prairie sunrise, but its reds and oranges still tinted the clouds in the early morning sky. Even the clouds look windswept, and it was a windy morning, the prairie winds pushing me along as I jogged around the block. Salina (pop. 45,000 or so) is home to Kansas Wesleyan University:
and - seriously, even here! Check out the sky and clouds! That's all the more I have to say.
Leaving Salina, I hopped on I-135 for a minute just because it made more sense. I-135 ends at I-70 (hence the whole "crossroads of America" idea) and becomes US-81, which I followed north until I could meet up with Kansas Highway 18. Kansas is the Sunflower State, so all of its state highways are marked by the number in a nice yellow sunflower picture. So I drove on Sunflower 18 for quite a while today. Again - wow. Do not ever listen to anyone who tells you Kansas is boring. Here are some towns I drove through today: Tescott, KS (blink once and you'll miss it); Lincoln, KS, where I got gas and ice; Vesper, KS; Denmark, KS; Lucas, KS; Luray, KS; Waldo, KS; Plainville, KS (home of Kansas' US Rep Jerry Moran); Zurich, KS; Palco, KS; Damar, KS, where I stopped to check out an old church - the only stop sign in Damar is the stop sign to get back on bustling KS-18; Hill City, KS, where I picked up US-24; Hoxie, KS; Colby, KS, where I stopped to look at a towering complex of what I suppose are grain siloes.
This whole drive I was so engaged with everything I saw; it was so interesting, and so beautiful. I wish I could encapsulate the grandeur of the sky, of the rolling fields of grain, of everything I wondered about as I drove.
This is a picture of Damar, Kansas, a zero-stop-sign town. Oh yes.
I was again graced with beautiful weather this morning. The sun shone high in the sky as I climbed in altitude, and the temperature again rose into the 70's. It's hard not to love everything you see when the weather is like that!
Eventually, US-24 merged with I-70 and I had no choice but to get on the interstate. Seriously, the interstate is where the drive begins to feel like drudgery. The interstate lacks the character of the back routes. But, you get to go faster - in Colorado, the posted speed limit is 75 mph. Ah, the wild west!
Today I amused myself by memorizing the state capitals in alphabetical order by state (Montgomery, Juneau, Phoenix, Little Rock, Sacramento, Denver, Hartford, and so on). The sweeping plains are still beautiful, and the sky looms ever larger, and I press on westward.
In Burlington, CO, I needed gas and a bathroom break, and I got tricked into stopping at a Wild West museum. In Kansas, I had gotten pretty good at spotting historical markers and stopping at them, so I felt I ought to check it out, but the museum was mostly hokey and I wasted about twenty minutes telling the ladies there why I didn't have the time to make it worth my six bucks admission cost. Ah well, I bought a few postcards, and was back on the road.
Suddenly, I realized that I was under 180 miles from Denver, and that meant I would be there in under three hours. Now, wait a minute! I wasn't even tired yet! This is Cocky Energetic Sarah speaking, the one who thinks "Well, I only drove eight hours today! What's wrong with me?" The same Sarah who insists upon getting up at six a.m. every day Just Because, who runs a half marathon and hosts a dessert party (in heels, I may add) the same day. Anyway, while driving I do a pretty good job of talking down Cocky Energy Sarah, and in this case I did so by reviewing the map and seeing how there really was no possible back road I could take to get to Denver anytime today, and I would just have to suck it up , take the interstate, and -gasp- arrive before nightfall and before I was utterly exhausted!
So, time for a pop quiz: Which of these things did I encounter at the exact moment I reached the suburbs of Denver (a very large city, with lots of cars): a) road construction b) rush hour c) snowstorm d) all of the above
Oh, yes. It is a good thing I am an intrepid traveler. The instant I merged onto I-225 in Denver, huge flakes of snow interspersed with heavy rain began pelting down, cars came from everywhere, lanes were closed due to road construction that wasn't happening because the workers went home because of the weather, etc. Good thing I have an adventure-mobile (which happened to turn 169,000 miles in the midst of this chaos) and we made it through!
I am currently in Englewood, a suburb of Denver. I'm staying with Chris & Shannon, who my parents met in Montana when my mom was pregnant with Greta. For the record, that was a long time ago. It has been wonderful catching up with them, and who would have guessed it, I was exhausted as soon as I got off the road anyhow. I did drive for eight hours today, after all.
Today's mileage: 471. Total mileage so far: 1570.
PS: I had intended to include daily mileage counts in my previous posts; they're included after the fact, now, in case you hadn't been following every last word.
PPS: This is how you host a dessert party in heels after run
ning a half marathon, in case you were wondering.
I remember being shocked at the SuperEnergySarah-ness of hosting a desert party, in heels, after half-marathoning. Then I showed up and saw how many delicious treats you had also made and I thought: Oh me oh my. She may have to be upgraded simply to Super-Sarah!!
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