the first Monday of October, we loaded up and left KANEKO, Linda bravely turning left on 12th,

right onto Leavenworth, left on 13th, 1.8 miles to I-80

and west on the interstate, boom boom boom…the temps as all week still in the nineties

with fierce warm winds out of the southwest.  First gas since Kearney was at Shoemaker’s right

outside of Lincoln, nice looking restaurant but we opted for a rest stop an hour further on

where winds sufficient to blow our leftovers off the table prevailed, then

onwards,

boom

boom to Kearney where I took over; 44 to Axtell, 34W through Funk, Holdrege and Atlanta [where I’d had a nice talk with a junkyard guy just that morning but no ’45 Chev tailgate] to

Arapahoe, 283 south into Kansas and the Brooks Motel in Norton, adequate enough and

since Norton’s only vaguely interesting restaurant, Las Canteras, was closed Mondays,

convenient to Subway, where we settled for sandwiches [and two $2.50 bottles of bottled

water] to accompany a mindless evening of “Gunsmoke” on the teevee.

Tuesday, twenty degrees cooler and promising possible precip, started off with construction delays on 36W, 383 south through rolling green north Kansas countryside’s townlets; Clayton,

Jennings [“Czech us out”], into which we ventured seeking kolaches but alas the downtown had, though an interesting stone facade on the community center, no businesses whatever so we

returned to 383 where it rained, then didn’t. After Dresden and Leoville it lost a 3, became 83,

paused for roadwork in Selden and then somewhere around Gem veered

due south, along a stretch where the Sheriff clocked me going just a little faster than the

constant stream of grainers but let me off with a warning…

Thank You, Jesus/Thank You, Kansas.

We crossed I-70 into Oakley, went right on 40 for 111 miles through, if barely noticing, Winona,

McCallister, Wallace [often the towns, if they exist at all, tend to be off to one or the other side

of the road], Sharon Springs for gas and a coffee refill, Weskan, Ks, Cheyenne Wells, Co, and

just before Kit Carson turned south on 287 at which point Linda took over to take us down

to Eads, 96W through Haswell, Arlington,

Sugar City and at

Ordway south on 71 through Rocky Ford to Hawley

where we nearly missed 10 for that last 64.4 miles to the Walsenburg Safeway

for a week’s groceries, after which it was 69 to Gardner to collect our “The Playa Says No!”

stickers a week late from the post office and home up the hill.