A Long Way to Bugageddon

Leaving Colorado Springs with Pikes Peak in the rear view mirror was a mixed blessing.

We thoroughly enjoyed our short stay in Colorado, but, we have other things to do, and so must move on. Eastern Colorado out-Kansas's Kansas, if that makes any sense. After a long rolling descent from 5,000+ feet elevation, the terrain turns completely flat.

We elected to not proceed to I 70 for the trip east, and instead stayed on 24, 40 and 287 for awhile. The road was only two lane, but fairly nice, and took us through huge tracts of rangeland. Unfortunately, somewhere between Wild Horse and Kit Carson, I took a wrong turn! The trip that should have taken us about 5 hours ended up requiring a full 7 hours, and added exactly 100 miles to the length.

We ended up getting back on our old friend US 50 in Wiley, Colorado, and driving east on that until we could get a road going north in Granada, Co, just west of the Kansas line. 385 took us to Cheyenne Wells, where we picked up the road we should have been on, US 40. That got us to Oakley, KS, and then 100+ miles to Hays, KS, where we're spending the night. Whew!

There was a bright spot, however: Just west of kit Carson we happened upon KXXX am, 790 on the dial, "Radio for the Working Man". This Classic Country station says it's "What every radio station wants to be when it grows up!". Broadcast our of Colby, KS, it serves eastern CO and northwestern KS with local farm news and country music. For hours we sang along with Randy Travis being the "Forever and every, Amen" guy, the Everly Brothers being "Only the Lonely", and CW McCall organizing a 1,000 truck "Convoy" that hit the New Jersey Toll Booth at 97 mph….

Just about the time we entered Ellis, KS, the boyhood home of Walter P. Chrysler (yeah, the car guy), we lost the station and had to content ourselves with the sound of bugs hitting the front of the motorhome!

I'm sure glad I cleaned Nessie yesterday!

As we relax for the evening, the outside temp is just under 97 with no breeze. Sasha wants to go outside for a walk, but earlier she didn't like the heat, so we're going to wait until after dark, which is about 8:55 this time of year here. We're firmly planted in the northeast corner of a Walmart parking lot next to another motorhome with the generator and air conditioners running. Can it get any better than this?