Heartland

I had a wonderful time in Colorado Springs.   Catching up with people I'd not seen in more than FIFTY YEARS was just incredible.    Lots of hugs and smiles, and music and new friends.   Here I am with my best friend from 5th and 6th grade....  She lives in Chile, and has two beautiful daughters,   who are 1/2 Easter Islanders.  One daughter, Mahani, is a concert pianist, the other a journalist and concert organizer.   Check out this music school on Easter Island that Mahani and her husband, Enrique Icke, are creating.  It is really amazing.

I spent 3 nights in Colorado Springs, and visited the Garden of the Gods, which I remember being WAY north of town... and is now kind of in the middle of town, but still awe-inspiring, with Pikes Peak behind it.

The last night I spent at Cheyenne Mountain State Park, south of Colorado Springs.   The views were wonderful, and gave me a pretty good sense of the landscape I'd be seeing for the next few days driving East.   This was looking east during sunset.

As I have mentioned before, I'm trying to stay off Freeways, so chose to drive east on Hwy 36 across northern Kansas and Missouri, ending in Hannibal.   In Colorado and Kansas this is a 2 lane highway with a speed limit of 65 mph.  It goes through lots of very small farm towns.   Cope, Colorado is one of those (I stopped to mail some postcards here).

I finally hit the Kansas border and had to stop for a photo op.

No longer seeing spectacular mountains, but rather spectacular skies!

A few observations about traveling in Kansas.

1. There are many 'picnic' areas along the highway. They have picnic tables, but no bathrooms.

2. Semi trucks drive with their right tires on the white line, whether they need to or not.

3. Cars wait for the 4th opportunity to pass before they actually pass.

4.  Kansas is not flat, but miles and miles of rolling hills.

5.  I got better gas mileage driving in the mountains of Colorado at 45-50 mph than I did in the rolling hills of Kansas at 65 mph (on a 2 lane highway I didn't want to hold up traffic so tried to do the speed limit).

6.  There was a Post Office in almost every small town I passed through.

7.  There was a Dollar One store in a lot of the small towns I passed through.   I wanted to go inside one to see what they sold, but didn't.

8.  There are almost no McDonalds along Hwy 36 (they have clean bathrooms, so I stop there a lot)

I had to stop here (and found a geocache even though I didn't have any geocaching technology with me).

I spent the night at Lovewell State Park, near Mankato, Kansas.  It was 94 degrees and humid when I arrived, so I was glad for lots of shade in a lovely park on a large body of water and lots of camping opportunities.   I think it must be a Kansas thing... the ONE bathroom was about 1/8 mile from my campsite.  I saw an Eastern Bluebird and a Baltimore Oriole in the campground.

Up early the next day so I could make it to my destination to meet up with my sister and brother-in-law.   When I crossed the border into Missouri, Hwy 36 became a 4 lane divided hwy, so I slowed down to a saner 55 mph and my gas mileage improved a great deal.

So now I'm in the land of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer, Hannibal, Missouri.    We are spending a few nights here before heading back to my sister's house near Chicago.   Tonight we went on a dinner cruise on the Mississippi River.   It was sweet!

Tomorrow we are going to explore Cahokia Mounds, near St. Louis.   Not sure how long I'll stay in Illinois, so now I have to plan my trip back to Oregon!   Waddles and I are still in love.