Day 26 - Mountains in my rear view mirror!

Sounds like a country song, doesn't it? Maybe it could start like this:

     Mountains in my rear view mirror.
     Each mile bringing me nearer,
     Back to the center of lands I roam.
     Yes, back to my home sweet home!

Okay, I won't quit my day job. Come to think of it, I don't have a day job. Need a new phrase!

Denver is certainly a city of transition. You come down about 6000 feet from the high Rockies and you're immediately on the high plains. Traveling eastward, the only mountains you now see are in the rearview mirror. Red can almost drive himself now as the roads are straight and the traffic is light.

Kansas Highways

In about 90 minutes we are in Kansas. The highest point in Kansas is 3300 feet. Twenty four hours ago we were in deep snow and at 11,000 feet. Now, it's 74 degrees and we are surrounded by fields of brown and green. We wonder if the inspiration for the Emerald City of Oz came from these emerald fields of green winter wheat?

This has been a great trip so far; we've seen so much and have more than our retired brains can handle. It's also been interesting from the perspective of what we didn't do this trip. One thing we didn't do is go out to listen to music and dance. That's a first for a Palm Desert trip for us, but we just weren't up for it. We blame the "itises" that we came down with when we started our trip. Yeh, that's the ticket, "itises"!

But the biggest "didn't" is even more amazing. We did not shop. I'm serious, we (meaning Mona, of course) did NOT shop! We always spend three days shopping in the Valley: 1: El Paseo to get pampered and to shop the Coldwater Creek Mother Ship. 2: The strip in Palm Springs which is full of fun trendy shops. And 3: The Cabazon Premium Outlet Mall. Over the the years, these three places have cost us more than most of the cars I've owned. And I'm only talking about the shipping costs!

She did have to pick up a new sweatshirt at Crazy Shirts, but hey, she simply bought it without shopping for it. Big difference! Just to illustrate how big this "didn't" is: Mona is bringing home EXACTLY the same number of shoes as she left with. Unbelievable!

Back to the "dids"!

Loving the Heartland!

We are really enjoying the trip through the heartland. We've got the iPod hooked up and we sing our favorites as we roll through mile after mile of green and brown fields. Apparently, the locals feel we need more entertainment so there are signs along the road advertising neat things to do like: visiting an adult superstore, looking at a museum on Oil Patches or seeing the world's largest prairie dog. Tempting they are indeed, but we roll on.

Throughout this trip we've been seeing lots of new wind farms; and of course the original wind farm in the Gorgonio Pass.  Near Salina, Kansas, we see another new farm being built.  There's no transmission line to it and they are still hauling in parts.  In fact, we see a few trucks with wind turbine parts rolling past us.  The view out the back window gives you an idea of just how large each blade is.

We stop for lunch and gas at the exit for the World's Largest Ball of Twine. We long to see it, but we've just made reservations for a hotel in Topeka and we don't want to drive an extra two hours. Sigh.

Imagine the stories of what happened on this trail!

Got to Topeka and wanted to stretch our legs and enjoy the beautiful weather so we went geocaching.  The most interesting cache we found was on the Oregon Trail, where wagon trains headed west.  Look at the pic and you can see the ruts still there from the 1800s.  Too cool!  Would have never know this was there without geocaching!

Headed into the backstretch of our trip tomorrow.  But for now, time to rest and relax.