Day 6 - Kansas and beyond

Sunday night,  I looked up at the sky at about 2:15 AM and saw the most magnificent sky. It looked like diamonds strewn across a blanket of black velvet. It literally took my breath away. So glad to have thought to look up when I did.

My review of Mill Creek Campground came before we settled down for the night and before the first freight train came rumbling through blaring its horn. The first one we noticed was at 11:11 pm and Lucy flew straight up in the air and off the bed for parts unknown. It was enough to shake "G" and me alert. We discovered that the train passes by every three hours. So at 2:11 am and 5:11 am, Lucy repeated her "flying off the bed routine." The poor baby. If this trip doesn't kill her, it will certainly make her stronger.

This You Tube video has been uploaded for the audio only. Turn your speakers up to experience what we heard at 2:11 am. I wasn't able to catch the whistle, because that's what woke me up. 

Speaking of Lucy, her adjustment to the long hours on the road is remarkable. She waits to eat her meals and use her litter box whenever we stop. As soon as the slides go in, she gets in her wicker bed and doesn't make a peep. She is the perfect passenger, we couldn't ask for more.

Two more stickers have been added to our map - the States of Missouri and Kansas are helping to make our map look more impressive. On Tuesday, we will cross into Colorado and a different time zone, and another sticker will join the current 10 that exist. 

If Chicago is the "Windy City," then Kansas is the "Windy State." It was a huge task keeping Allie on the straight and narrow, but "G" did a great job, as usual. The scenery in Kansas is like the movie Groundhog Day. Every time I glanced up at the road it looked exactly the same. For the passenger, it was extremely boring and for the driver, monotonous. 

The song in my head for the day was Abilene, which was sung by various artists, including Buck Owens and Waylon Jennings. It got stuck there because there was a town called Abeline in Kansas that was along our route. I kept seeing it on the map and on roadsigns. 

Abeline, Abeline,

Prettiest town I've ever seen. 

Women there don't treat you mean

In Abeline, my Abeline 

Daily gas mileage had been averaging at a low of 5.3 mpg to a high of 6.8 mpg. Heading into the mountains, we're not expecting to get any better than what we've seen thus far. 

We continue to experience difficulty maneuvering in Pilot Service stations. However, since gas stations are scarce n these parts of Kansas, we're just happy to find one when needed. There's not much out along the vast expanses of I-70 this far west. We saw oil rigs (that were a lot smaller than I thought they would be) and giant wind turbines that were making good use of all that Kansas wind. Other than that, we mostly just saw corn, wheat, cows and hay for miles and miles.

Monday evening found us in the Colby, Kansas Walmart parking lot, which brings the number of free nights up to three! I can't wait to calculate what it cost to make it out to Colorado on a budget. It was my goal to prepare every meal along the way, stay at reasonably-priced campgrounds and utilize free overnight parking, whenever possible. We done good.

My next entry will contain more photos of yesterday and today. WiFi is not cooperating, and I'm too tired to write anymore tonight. 

PS  We did arrive in Colorado late this afternoon, two days ahead of schedule! Stay tuned...

Deep thought for the day:  What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Here's hoping that Lucy will be looking like a weightlifter soon.