Thursday 10/13/2016
Limon CO to Cameron MO
~  541 miles

Back on the road by 0730 to get down to the business of making miles. And miles is what we saw, making our way across the final stretch of Colorado on I-70:

When first routing for this trip in my Basecamp software, I’d simply allowed the return track to run us all the way home on the interstate system. However, after getting a feel for the US routes in the western states and how fast they can be (aside from the occasional town or village), I determined to avoid the interstates as much as possible for at least a couple days of the eastward trek, to take in some local scenery and color. The arrow straight grid-like tendency of the western highways allows this without adding too many miles, albeit sometimes tacking on extra time. I also tried to plan a few Roadside America stops of interest along the way through the midwestern states, to break up the monotony of the highway and flat landscape.

That all said, I-70 made the most sense for the first 140 miles or so of the day, getting us the rest of the way across the Colorado ranchland plains and started into Kansas.

Our first Roadside America stop wasn’t far over the state border, in Goodland KS. A giant easel with a replica Van Gogh painting awaited us in the chill morning air.

Kansas didn’t turn out to be quite as flat as I’d imagined it would be with cornfields everywhere (from what I understand now I was probably envisioning Nebraska). I certainly didn’t realize that much of the western part of the state was at such high elevation, though it makes sense being just a few hours from the Rockies. We jogged northeast on US-83 after Colby and then east on US-36. After seeing it on the map, I had hoped that Prairie Dog State Park actually provided the opportunity to see the rodents in action, but further research dispelled that thought. It seems a name was just a name in this case, and we passed it without a second glance.

Still seeing some fall color, even in Kansas.

We stopped for gas in Phillipsburg, were feeling peckish, and noticed a local place right next to the gas station.

With a name like Chubby Pickle, how can you go wrong? Yelp agreed, so we walked in and it was like one of those western saloon scenes where all the locals stop and look up at you briefly when you walk in, before continuing on with their business. Unperturbed, we seated ourselves and were promptly chatted up by a few friendly local gentlemen who were in for their lunch break.

We heard their stories of the town they had known in it’s oil refining heyday, gone to seed in recent years after the refinery closed down, leaving toxic spillage in its wake that the townsfolk were still dealing with. The oldest man had gone away to Denver to find work and had trouble securing a loan with the savings and loan system of the day, eventually returning to his home town to find work however he could.

We summarized some of our trip for them and they apologized for the flat boring landscape (they’re the ones that informed us Nebraska was even flatter). We told them we were enjoying the wide open space as a nice change and all part of the journey. Our food finally came (good burger) and the men headed back out to their jobs, wishing us a safe journey…a very pleasant encounter for a lunch stop.

Another 30 miles or so on US-36 brought us to our next roadside attraction in Lebanon KS, at the geographical center of the 48 contiguous states. They’ve got a nice little park and monument on a farm road a couple miles from the highway, complete with a tiny visitor’s chapel (we were in the heartland after all).

We continued passing through many little towns across Kansas on US-36, getting clued in by all the signage that it was a primary route for the Pony Express in the days of yesteryear (it is in fact called the “Pony Express Highway”).

We stopped off in the pleasant little town of Troy, with cobbled tree-lined side streets that could have been in any number of towns in New England. Our destination was a Whispering Giant, one of artist Peter Toth’s log sculptures of Native American faces. A couple seasons too late for the Whispering Giants Grand Tour event, but I now have an interest in seeing these works whenever I know I’m in the vicinity.

Still some miles to go, we got back on the highway and were soon crossing the Missouri River into the state of Missouri, zipping through St. Joseph on divided highway.

I’d almost picked a hotel here in St. Joe for the day’s endpoint, but we’d decided to make extra miles out to Cameron MO, where the hotel reviews were better and to be able to make a shorter final day on Sunday.

With a decided lack of restaurant options, we dashed across the busy US-36 from our hotel to eat at a dive-y local truck-stop restaurant called Nelle’s. My body was crying out for vegetables or green food and the salad bar was decent enough. It had been a long day, but the roadside attractions and local scenery made nice diversions and I was pleased with the decision to avoid the all-interstate route. I worked on a similar route for the following day in the hotel that night. We were pretty well settled into our traveling rhythm by now, and still enjoying the trip immensely, despite the decided lack of breathtaking mountain/lake scenery.