E to F: Lake Pueblo State Park, CO to Concordia, MO
E to F: Lake Pueblo State Park, CO to Concordia, MO
7.21.10
Continuing our early starts, we were up by 6am and showered and on the road by 7am. After crossing into Kansas (what, no welcome sign on US-50?), the main attractions along the road were grain elevators and feed lots. The road was also slow moving, as the distance between small towns grew smaller and smaller. As we approached Dodge City, it became clear that it would take us forever to cross US-50 all the way across the 500+ miles of Kansas and did we really want to stay the night in a state that only sold 3.2% alcohol beer? Missouri never looked so welcoming. We peeked at "historic" (recreated) Front Street in Dodge City, and gorged on delicious tacos at Taco Jalisco. Our book recommended Mexican in Dodge City, apparently the Hispanic population has grown tremendously in Kansas in recent years around towns near cattle lots. We cut up on US-56 towards I-70 and stopped at Kinsley, KS - "Midway USA". We were now equidistant from New York and San Francisco! US-56 met up with 156, which connected with I-70. Driving along I-70 in Kansas was faster, but made us happy with our choice to try to avoid Interstates as much as possible. We flew past Kansas City, stopped for Subway and settled in for the night at the Concordia Rest Area. Emily wanted to try to be low profile and not pop the top of the van, but it was so hot and muggy it would have been impossible to sleep. Missouri is one of those nice states that doesn't mind people sleeping at their rest areas as long as you don't set up a tent or really look like you are living there, so no one bothered us all night and we had the rumble of semis to lull us to sleep. Max had driven close to 700 miles that day. Wow.
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