Day Thirteen, 14 miles outside Ogallah, KS: Amber Waves of Grain… and grain… and grain…

I have this to say about the state of Kansas: it is not interesting.

When I told my host in Kansas City, Torey, that surely there must be something in Kansas, he shook his head, laughed, and said, “no.” In my mind, I am thinking that this is no big deal. So  I won’t be able to stop and do fun things. For the most part, I am a person that enjoys driving. So this is not very concerning. I was looking at a ten hour drive split into two days. That is, by no means, un-doable.

But here is the kicker, and I cannot emphasize this enough. Residents of Kansas like to plant corn and wheat. When this gets old, they plant wind farms. When the entertainment value of this is exhausted, they work on making their roads straighter. See illustration below.

 
Kansas

 
Kansas (different area, but who can tell anyway, right?)

Zzzzzzzz.

Let me explain this in one other way. Take Michigan, right? Chop down all the trees, and burn all of the buildings. Plant the exact same kind of grass everywhere. Stretch out all the roads so that they are all perfectly parallel and perpendicular to each other. Bingo, you just created Kansas.

Leaving Kansas City in the morning, I did not know where I was going to end up at the end of the night, which was a very nice feeling. Had I actually punched in a destination to the GPS, I would have been told to “continue, four-hundred and seventy eight miles.” Barf.

After having stopped at a rest stop – I stopped about seven times, just to break up the monotony – I broke out my AAA camp book and decided on a little town called Ellis.

I don’t understand the deal with camping out of an RV. If someone told you they would build you a large trailer in your backyard, and it would produce electricity and water, and you could live in it for a few nights at a time… is this something you would jump at the chance to have? I suppose it is unfair for me to knock something I haven’t tried, and no offense to those who enjoy it, because I am sure there is something that I am missing. But I feel as though camping is a time to get away from all the things that keep us tied down.

 

For more pictures, see http://picasaweb.google.com/reidksmith