First, I’d like to invite you to Caffeinating Liberally this coming Saturday morning the 18th at Common Grounds Coffeeshop, 44th and Vallejo in Denver, from 9AM to about noon. We’ll have a table reserved, usually at the table next to the coffee refill pots. RSVP if you’d like us to look out for you.
Now, then….
On the road again…
I can’t wait to get off the road again…
To be back home with more of my friends
I can’t wait to get off the road again.
I’m not sure just where I’ll be when this publishes. Hopefully some place in Eastern Colorado on I-70, heading west. I really don’t think I’ll still be in Kansas, but that’s a possibility if I don’t get a good start. I have some donations to make (clothing to a charity organization, more academic papers of my father to the University of Kansas) and then I’ll load up the car and head west.
I have enjoyed the drive in the past. I’m a native Kansan, and I grew up really loving the prairie. One of the first things I get to drive past (after the state capitol of Topeka) are the Flint Hills and the Konza prairie. The Konza prairie is a research area of Kansas State University and The Nature Conservancy where they study the prairie grasses, the animals that live out there (they have a herd of buffalo as well as some cattle), the weather and the ecosystem as a whole. I went with my mother in the early 90’s for an open house they had and I was really impressed with the variety of grasses and layers of the grasses and earth in the unplowed land. There have been many times where I’ve been driving that stretch in the early morning or early evening light and the hills are just so pretty. Sure, I know and love mountains, but my first love is the prairie.
The road west goes down a hill past Junction City and past Fort Riley, home of the US Army Big Red 1. There’s a large airfield with planes occasionally coming and going, sometimes some military vehicles and some artillery pieces on permanent display. In years past I’ve seen some convoys as well.
A bit farther west is the town of Abilene. Another place with a military tie, it’s where President Dwight D. Eisenhower has his Presidential Library at his boyhood home. It is more than just a library, however. There’s a museum with a lot of information about Eisenhower as a general to go with his time as President. Right now, there’s an exhibit about Abilene as a cowtown as well, which you may remember was very important in the 19th century there. As an aside, there’s also a Russell Stover chocolate factory there where you can go and sample goodies and purchase some chocolates at some low prices.
For awhile, the land flattens out as you get closer to Salina. Yes, Kansas can be very flat, but at least this stretch has some vertical relief, unlike farther south. My trips to Hutchinson, about a hundred miles to the south, were through country flatter than pancakes. With the northern route, streams occasionally break the surface and I imagine the people traveling over this land in covered wagons and on horseback. Mrs. Colotim complains that Kansas has one tree and one cow. In the state. As I travel down this stretch, I see herds of cattle, horses, other barnyard animals and wildlife including occasional antelope, birds (hopefully I see some V’s of geese heading south), and sometimes some deer.
Another political town is Russell. Home of longtime Senators and presidential candidates Bob Dole and Arlen Spector, they have a sign proudly announcing this to passersby. I haven’t stopped there other than for gasoline. I prefer Dwight Eisenhower, myself.
Hays, Kansas is a town with a very nice natural history museum which has dinosaurs found in the limestone of Kansas, laid down at various times when Kansas was the center of a large inland ocean/sea and other times when there were terrestrial saurians. I visited the museum many years ago when Kansas had a law mandating that any discussion of evolution must be balanced by an equal length presentation of biblical intelligent design. I cringed listening to the docent who sure didn’t sound enthusiastic having to waste time telling the visitors a fairy tale. I don’t know if Kansas has a similar law at this time — they’ve had it overturned and then passed it again, only slightly changed.
One of my favorite sights along the route are the large stands of windmills. The rolling hills of the western section of the state provide a great location for the farmers and ranchers to make additional money from leasing part of their land to power companies that are trying to generate green energy. Kansas was one of the first states where I saw these. Kathleen Sebelius was the governor during the time I first saw them and I think it was under her leadership that Kansas became one of the leaders in this “field”. Before Obama tapped her for his cabinet, dooming Kansas in the next election to elect Governor Brownback for these past five years. Chris Reeves has plenty of diaries about how much a disaster he has been for Kansas.
Finally, the last few miles to get to Colorado. About 80 miles from the border, I cross over into the Mountain Time Zone and gain an hour back. Once I get back to Colorful Colorado, as the sign says, I am expecting to continue seeing windmills and various familiar towns — Burlington with the little history and welcome center, Flagler, Limon, Deer Trail and eventually I’ll see the Denver metroplex shining on the horizon. I expect to be somewhere along this stretch when the diary publishes.
When I get to read and respond, I hope to hear of any drives you take through Colorado, any favorite sights that you like to stop at, or any unusual tales that have happened to you.