Thank God we’re not in Kansas anymore. I slept poorly last night and dreamed about OZ denying my wish for some supple hills. Western Kansas was warm, flat and very windy today. Eastern KS looks like Dolly Parton compared with the flatness of western KS. I asked the lady at the rest stop how long the winds will persist. She said, it would keep blowing all the way to the Colorado border and she was right. At least it was a warm southerly wind, unlike the more fierce chilly northern gale in South Dakota. She informed me that a big-rig blew over and spilled dog food all over the highway earlier this morning. Wonderful! She also told me that the massive crops that look like 3-foot corn fields is a grain called Milo that’s used as feedstock and for making ethanol. I had a hankering for roughage and ordered a plain green salad for lunch. The waitress kindly obliged my request for Eye-Tal-Yun dressing on the side.
Fortunately for KS, they have a savior named Larry who has run Prairie Dog Town with his wife for the past 44 years. What an fantastic character and a terrific place. His barnyard is filled with animals he caught; 50 rattlesnakes from the campground next door; foxes and coyotes he raised when their parents became road-kill; and five and six-legged mutated cows the local ranchers gave him that are featured by Ripley’s Believe it or Not. I spent an hour with Larry and his animals, but the best thing was hand-feeding the wild prairie dogs and coyotes. To me it was better than waiting for hours to go up a cramped tram to the top of a stainless-steal arch. Add Larry’s Prairie Dog Town in Oakley, KS to your Bucket List, but only if you're already stuck in KS.
I stopped into the Colorado Visitor’s Center and met 2 ladies who told me that volunteering for the rest stop is better than working, except the pay sucks. The road changes from asphalt to concrete as you pass from KS into CO and the landscape becomes more intersting too; trees, hills, and cool cloud formations. I called my good friend, David Chew, and arranged to have dinner with him tonight. David found me a great motel in Denver and met me there at about 7:45. We went to dinner at a terrific local fish taco joint and had a great time catching-up over super mahi-mahi soft tacos. It’s Indian summer in Denver and the temperature was about 70 degrees at 10:00.
When I got back to the motel, I called an old friend, Stacy-Rae-Schneider McKinley-Gerhard and arranged to meet her and her family after touring Denver tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment