No Reservations Part 5

If you know where we live you would realize that the shortest way home would be to leave Denver on I-76 heading northeast to I-80. Who wants to do that? East we headed but on I-70 towards Kansas. It's all downhill and our trip computer in the car registered 27.8 mpg while leaving Colorado. Once you leave Denver it gets pretty desolate. Not the same as crossing the Gulf but still not much civilization on either side of the road. Entering Kansas doesn't change things too much. One thing did change though. After being in the 90's while we were in Denver the temperature changed. It was now 105! We rolled into Hays, Ks. for an overnight stay.

The next morning we drove down to the south side of Hays so Pam could take a look at the buffalo that were supposed to be there. The picture shows the token herd that we found.

We took one of the back roads out of town passing this grain elevator along the way. Throughout our travels we passed several elevators, many being much larger than this one. We also passed many oil wells while travelling through the mid section of the country.

We even passed many wind farms on our journey, this one in Kansas which went on for miles.

One of Pam's favorite stops became the Pilot truck stops. Not because she likes 18 wheelers with chrome all over, but because the coffee is good and they have real half and half. Not that chai latte crap but good old coffee that will hold a spoon up. This one near Salina became our lunch stop as well.

From Salina it was on to Abilene. Originally started as a shipping point for cattle which had been driven up from Texas, Abilene is most famous as the hometown of our 34th president, Dwight Eisenhower.
The Eisenhower complex includes his boyhood home still in its' original location. Library, museum, visitor center, and chapel which houses the remains of Ike & Mamie. We spent most of our time in the museum with Pam checking out the exhibits related to Mamie and family, and me those of Ike's military and presidential careers. (http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/)

Boyhood home.

Chapel and final resting place.

Statue and grounds.
From Abilene we continued east through Topeka and on towards Kansas City. Outcroppings of civilization becoming more evident every mile. As we approached KC we realized it was going to be rush hour when we got there. A quick glance at the map showed a way around town which turned out to be the right choice since I-70 was under construction heading into downtown.

As we crossed the Missouri River into Missouri all hell broke loose in the way of high winds and torrential rain. The picture is the most visibility we had for the next 15 minutes. At times I couldn't see the road. It was right then that I wished I was back in a bus again!

The next day we crossed into Iowa and were greeted by this family of cows at the welcome center. Following our stop we only had a couple hundred miles until we arrived back home ready for our next adventure.