1113 August 22, 2024 Looks Like Kansas

When I woke up this morning, the sky was just starting to pinken.  I dressed quickly and made myself a cup of coffee.  I went outside to watch the sunrise.  It has been a long time since I had witnessed the beginning of a new day.  I was filled with a deep sense of peace.

I walked the roads of the pristine park.  I was almost chilly enough to want a sweatshirt but I chose to embrace the fresh air and then it wasn’t long before I was warm enough.  I saw deer running amongst the trees.  There were vultures perched and watchful and waiting.

I heard thunder and decided to head back to the RV.  The first drops of rain fell as we prepared to leave.  The rain passed and the sky turned blue.  There is a persistent haze that is from the Canadian wildfires.

Once we were on our way and headed west on 70, we decided that today, it looked like Kansas.  There were rolling and grassy hills.  There were corn and sorghum and soybean and hayfields.  There were cattle ranches and then suddenly, lots of windmills, hundreds or maybe thousands.

There isn’t much in this western portion of Kansas!

After Salina, 70W is a scenic route.  We planned to slow it down today.  We are grateful for the freedom to choose another path.  We elected to take the scenic route to the north of the interstate and through the Great Plains.  Our new RV has GPS and we have plugged in all of the coach features like height and weight and this GPS is customized to show us the best roads for our rig.  We chose to trust it!  We took the exit from 70 and came upon an unexpected road closure.  We had two options.  We could have disconnected the Jeep and turned around and gone back to the highway.  The second option was a gravel road that would serve as a detour.  Tim drove 16 miles on that gravel road. 

It was slow going but the condition of the road was fairly good.  This was the best part of my day!  The scenery was lovely!

There was a farmer plowing in his field and I am quite sure he looked at us and thought “What the hell?”  The cows even looked at us funny.

Finally, we arrived at the pavement in Waldo.

We found another free campsite at Sheridan Lake State Fishing Campground.  The lake is really dry but our site is under a big old cottonwood tree.  Sitting under that tree, was Tim’s favorite part of this day. 

We spent a lot of time sitting outside enjoying the warm breeze, dinner, and than the sunset.

I am very sure that we will remember this trip! Today was definitely a change of pace.  What is the most adventuresome thing that you did today?  There are lots of nooks and crannies in this great country of ours…get out and explore!