Day 23 of Western Adventures

 

On the road again!!! ( Jerry played the Willie Nelson song of the same name as we left.)  We are leaving central Colorado today and driving across the entire state of Kansas. The blog for today is rather uninteresting compared to the past 3 weeks.  Colorado and Kansas are as flat as a pancake with few trees and certainly no more mountains.  Already miss the mountains.

I am glad people like to live here and grow our corn and feed our meat supply of hogs and beef cattle, but this is not the life for me. ( or any of us on this trip). 

 

We see endless fields of corn, wheat (harvested) and hay. We also see large fields of sorghum and sunflowers.     The satellite photo shows an intricate tapestry of farms below.  Irrigation circles are quite evident from the air.  Kansas is the Sunflower state, but we were not aware that so much sorghum was raised.  Probably is added to cattle feed. The huge grain bins seem in abundant supply as we race past one tiny town after another on the interstate.  It is still a stretch to imagine this land populated with thousands and thousands of bison, roaming free, well over a two hundred years ago, as well as the mode of transportation being the covered wagon on a dusty trail. We have truly been roaming  throughout the land where the deer and the antelope roamed. ( along with a very few buffalo today.)  As early as 1830, American pioneers had eliminated almost all bison east of the Mississippi.  By 1880s, most of the western herds had also disappeared.

 

We have also seen huge wind farms across the Kansas plains as well as oil and gas pumping rigs.      

 

In the next few days, we will compile a “by the numbers” list for our trip.  We are astounded as the numbers add up.  Take a guess at how much we saved with our America the Beautiful Senior Park Pass, how many miles we have driven, how many restroom stops we made, how many beds we have slept in, how many states we visited, how many parks,  how many Mc Donalds cups of coffee, etc…………..  Watch a future post for the “By the Numbers” count.  The totals astound even the four of us even though we lived it all.  This has indeed been the adventure of a lifetime. We feel so fortunate to have the health as well as the resources to complete our Western Adventures.