July 29, Kansas is Crops

We had a quiet night in the Walmart parking lot. We were finally joined by one other RV there. When we got up this morning in the light, we discovered there was an RV park right next door to the Walmart! Not that we needed a park last night. We had internet at the Starbucks, and used their electricity.... and used the free dump at the Oasis, not just once, but twice! Last night and again this morning. As I figured we would be off the grid again tonight.

Colby turned out to be a nice little town. And bigger than expected. It was the county seat as well. Jeff always likes to walk through town and take some pics.

Cool info center!

 

Nice cobblestone main street area.

   

Another bronze statue.

Nice county seat!

There was a cool old church in town, along with a church bell and a story. I know the church would look great with a coat of paint, but there is something very rustic about this.

This bell did  not belong to the church above.

   Apparently this area is all about farming. And they are very proud of it. We quickly left Colby behind, though. We were soon in the vast farming area. But not before passing the county fairgrounds, where a rodeo was starting today. There were a number of horses tied up under the big trees, cooling off and being fed, right off the main road. Pretty horses, too!

Lets talk about farmland. And farming. And crops. Here are some really interesting scenery shots for today.

Pretty irrigated corn.

Might be dead corn.

Lost the wheat crop this year.

And the road ahead doesn't really change. Eventually it will!

As expected, Jeff found a couple of items along the side of the road. I still found squat...

Really, I just bought him a very nice pocket
knife for his birthday. Then he finds one!

Perhaps someone used the knife to behead Mickey....

And there is actually a flower of the day. Well, a couple. One came from town, which is almost cheating. but the other is an entire field of sunflowers, not planted, but wild. Very nice!

But the most worrisome moment of the day came when this big guy came running up behind him! Notice the hackles along his spine? Jeff said that the owner was calling the dog, and the dog was the size of a Great Dane, like waist high on Jeff. Looks just like a black lab, the size of a dane! Glad he decided to pass on tackling Jeff!

So after miles and miles and miles of corn to the left and corn to the right, we eventually made our way to Hoxie. I drove on to scout a place to park for the night. There was nothing.... this is a larger town than I expected, but there was no RV park. I finally asked a local police officer by the name of Brenden. He suggested a city park on the outside of town. So, on the way through town, Jeff took some pics. I think that Hoxie must be the farm equipment mecca of the Midwest.I have never seen so many tractors and things in one little town!

 

          

And there is a ton of grain storage here!

Hoxie is a cute little town, too. Some really cute houses! And some local art, too. We ended up on the outskirts of town at the little park suggested by the officer. Then, in the words of Jackson Browne, we can get up and do it again!

I can't say much about their mailboxes here. However, this one has a very interesting post!

July 28, Flies, Flies and BITING Flies

After a very relaxing night listening to multiple trains going by, Jeff was up and getting out pretty early. We had discovered that we actually changed time zones yesterday, and that has our schedule kind of screwed up. It is an hour later than we think it is.... So, he still made it out in time for the sunrise, although when I looked out the window, it was simply amazing! There had been some cloud cover most of the night. I know, as I like to look up at the stars, and out here you can see them ALL. Except when there is cloud cover. And the other thing that we listened to much of the night were the coyotes! I thought we had some interesting sounds from them at Robson Ranch, but they were in rare form last night on the High Plains!

So I titled today's blog Flies Flies and BITING Flies for a very good reason. I have never seen the sheer number of flies that get in the coach and just land on you and BITE. It has been building for a couple of days, but today, I took the dogs out while parked on the dirt next to the road. I have to take my ball cap (the one I got in Costa Rica with my best friend Mickie Dye!) just to swish at the flies. Not only on me, but on the dogs. When I turned around to go back to the coach, I noticed there must have been 100 of them sitting on the side wall. I mean, what is it about the coach that attracts them? We have to hurry in and out of the door, and even then we are killing flies for a long time. We have 2 fly swatters, and they are both in action many times! I also use that high DEET Off, and although it says it works for biting flies, I'm here to tell you that they still land and bite your legs! I can't or won't spray it on the dogs, though. I just have to swish my hat at them. I thought about taking a pic of all the flies on the coach, but didn't figure the flies would actually show up.

So today was more of the same. Several small towns along the railroad, and miles and miles of farm land. Dry, dusty, farmland. There are irrigation pivots out here, but some of the fields just seem to be dry, or hoping on rains. Speaking of rains, when it rains here, it must really be something. There are numerous creeks and such that are nothing but dry washes. I imagine that flash flooding could be a problem...

Look! Bumps!

And there is plenty of wind out here, too! Thankfully. It really helps keep this from being just miserable when it gets hot and sunny in the afternoon.

There are more of the small towns here. I pulled into one and parked at the little city park that was right on the highway. Waited for Jeff to come along, then it was my turn to get on the road and let him have a nice lunch break. So, off I go, as usual, expecting Jeff to come along and swap out after about half an hour. I try to do 2 sections of about 2 miles each. That keeps us moving down the road while he is resting. Otherwise, long rests could cost us too much time. So, I got to 2 miles. Then 2 1/2, then 3. I was considering texting him, but figured there was no guarantee he would get it in a timely manner. For all I knew, he had fallen asleep or something! Finally, after 3 1/2 miles, and about 45 minutes, here he came slowly down the road. I asked him if he got lost or something. He said actually he had gotten stuck in town. Since he usually walks through the towns and looks for interesting items to photograph, he decided to drive since I was past the town. He actually got stuck with his rear wheels off the ground when he went over a gully in the road for water run off! He had to flag down a farmer and his tractor to help extricate him from the predicament. I'm really trying not to laugh. I know he doesn't like driving the Big Beast!

Really, that thing scrapes the rear hitch at the slightest dip.
I never thought about getting stuck on one of these! I usually try
to take them at an angle too. That helps a lot.

Not sure what the reason for this mural is.
But it is CUTE! I LIKE it!

And they have a bank...

One of the things about these little towns. They all have huge grain elevators! I'm wondering if the ones that are not on the railroad line are the same way. Or if we will even find as many towns off the rail way.

Jeff didn't find much on the side of the road today, except a new friend. Thankfully these friends weren't the biting kind! I guess Jeff believes in the saying, Keep Your Friends Close, and Your Enemies Closer!

And who doesn't know what a relief that mile 26 is to a runner!?

I bet these cows are really glad to see that sign!

The Road Ahead.... the same as the road behind!

We decided to change highways in order to avoid having to use the interstate. There is a smaller highway north that looks like it will work well. So, we drove on in to Colby after Jeff finished today. There is a truck stop here, and it even has a Starbucks! Which is where I am getting all this internet stuff done. I'm not sure how much access we will have without driving to the interstate. But, for now, we are staying at the Walmart parking lot tonight. Actually, I think that will be the last Walmart for about 100 miles! But the truck stop, called The Oasis, had some interesting fake palm trees!

There were no flowers today on the side of the road, or anywhere else. But, Jeff did snag a Mailbox of the Day!

July 27, Made it to Kansas

Although we slept on the border, we didn't actually enter the state until the next morning. Jeff had to backtrack a few miles but was soon back at the Kansas border. He seems to do his best work in the morning hours. And he gets the best sunrise pics!

                           

It's kinda tough actually finding good scenery shots right now. I know that some people think the High Plains are beautiful, and I suppose in their own way they are. But it doesn't change much. Not like the mountains. I just love mountains.I have a couple pieces of them in the storage compartment in the coach!

I was also treated to an airshow! If you look at my Facebook page, you will see a video of the crop duster, but here is a great pic of it! They always make me think of my father in law, who got his start as a pilot as a teenager with a local crop duster who taught him how to fly. He ended up being a great pilot in WW2, known as a Hump pilot. Flying supplies over the Himalayan Mountains.  I went to one of their reunions. Now that was a very interesting weekend, listening to the WW2 pilots and their wives, talk about the things they did.

There are a lot of places to read about history here, too. Pretty amazing, huh? I know a lot of people equate the Old West with Texas, but a lot of the stories you hear about happened in this part of the country, too. Pioneers, outlaws, Native Americans, buffalo! I can so see thousands of buffalo out here!

And a lot of these little towns have museums. We stopped at the Fort Wallace museum today. The original building built for the stage was there. And of course the cemetery.

Old stage building, complete with bullet holes!

After going through a couple of little dot on the map towns, and of course finding no laundry, I decided that I should drive to the town up on the interstate, 30 miles away, that had a Walmart. I figured a town with a Walmart should be large enough for a laundry.... nope. However, I did stop at an RV park right at the edge of town to dump the tanks. They had 3 washer and dryers combos, so I loaded them all up. Unfortunately, Pinkie had puked on our bed, actually, on my PILLOW, the night before. So, laundry was a must! Went over to Walmart and picked up a few things. Then went back to put the stuff in the dryer. At that point, I pulled into a spot to dump. Sadly, the one I chose must have been clogged. Thankfully I was cracking my tank valve open pretty slowly, and actually still had my hand on it. I closed it really fast, and went to ask the lady if there was a problem with her sewer... between the two of us, we got it moved to another spot and had no more issues. I really don't like having sewer dump issues. It is pretty gross. TMI, right? Thankfully, I got everything accomplished and rushed back to highway 40 to find Jeff.

While I was gone, the only thing he found on the side of the road, was a sunflower taller than he is! All the ones I've seen have been about 1-2 feet tall.

This is one of the little towns we went through .

Interestingly, I didn't know that Kansas had mountains.... I think this is the highest spot in the state.

After the situation with the rancher running us off in Colorado, I have hoped to find a spot that isn't attached to private property. Tonight, we ended up on a little access road for the railroad. Which of course, put us even closer to the tracks than last night! There were a number of trains that came through over night. Only one of them honked his horn for us. At least that one wasn't really late!

And, lo and behold, we do have a Mailbox of the Day! I guess they didn't want to sink any more poles after doing the fence?