From grain elevator to grain elevator

 

When Dorothy coined the famous phrase "there's no place like home" in the classic Wizard of Oz film, well....she lied! We left ya last time shortly after descending from the higher elevations of the Rockies down into the hot flat plains of Eastern Colorado. As it turns out much of Colorado is suffering from what some say is the worst drought of the last 250 years. As a couple different locals explained the crops have diminished severely each year in the last handful; this year being the first in which parts of the state very well may not have a crop at all. It was a pretty wild scene in some parts looking out over thousands of acres of once upon a time cornfields; now nothing but super arid desert land with the petrified stalks of a past harvest stubbing up. 

 

 

A couple days out of Pueblo we crossed the state line into Kansas, which is our sixth state. 

 

 

The first five days in Kansas have seemed to follow a common theme a bit reminiscent of the classic Bill Murray film Groundhog Day....Wake up in the town park next to the local grain elevator, pedal 60 miles across a totally flat, windy, and sparse, but beautiful in its own way, landscape to the next town park next to the local grain elevator....from one population  200-1000 town to the next without much in between. The good news is almost every town in Kansas has either a nice pool or water park type thing to cool off in. 

 

Along the way we met back up with Jordan, Natalie, Isreal, and Nick, who had all been off route for a while, and spent a handful of nights sharing camps...one night in a church that had showers, ping pong, billiards, TV/DVD, etc. 

 

 

That's pretty much it for now from the great state of Kansas. In future news I suppose the name of this little shindig should now be twowheelsacrossfifteenstates as we've decided to change our route a bit. Looking at the below map the route we're on, the TransAm, is the dark brown line towards the bottom running left to right or East to West. We've decided to head North, in a handful of days when we get there, on the Great Rivers route up through Illinios, which is the light blue line. Then head East on the Northern Tier, which is the purple line, through Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and ending in Maine. 

 

 

It's so hot in Kansas even the raccoons nap away the afternoon hours.