not exactly Iowa - Day 16 - Gretna south to south Kansas

Wellington KOA, Wellington (KS)

Wednesday, 16 November 2022

And another picture of Jimmy lying in my shoe while the heater's going.

Odd how much difference a few weeks can make.  When I was here at the end of October, they'd closed up a lot of their sites.  Now I'm here a few weeks after that and find they've opened some of those they'd closed before and, in fact, I'm in one for the night.

But here too the weather was cold and raw and Dext and I didn't spend any time at the dog park or meet new dogs.

Because Google said today's drive would take 5 hours (meaning at least 8), and because I didn't have to worry about snow on the road, I left the campground about 7:15.

Today's route is the blue line -
the orange is from when I spent my month in Kansas.

The US highway that runs past the Gretna KOA intersects a state highway that leads to the interstate.  That intersection has 4 (count them - 4) signs that all say "NO TURN ON RED."  And I saw no fewer than 4 cars turning anyway while we waited for the green light.  I don't wish something like an accident on someone else, but I did wish there were a police officer nearby to mete out at least a little justice.

When we left the campground, my windshield washing fluid was frozen.  NPR was saying it was 21° in Omaha, just down the road.  After we'd been driving for a while, I guess it was the engine warming up the fluid enough that it melted to make it usable again,

NPR also said egg production was down by 25% because of the bird flu that's been going around recently.  So if you think egg prices are going up, that's why.

I'd taken the precaution of checking to see where the rest areas were on today's route, so I knew we'd need to stop after less than 2 hours of driving just to be sure Dext would have a chance to relieve himself on this long drive.

We passed a huge processing facility labeled POET Bioprocessing.  There were dozens of silos, I guess for the corn used to make bioethanol (this plant produces 137 million gallons of it each year).  They say they also make special livestock feed here.  I made some effort to find out what that name means or where it came from.  Still a mystery.

Past that plant I saw another herd of cows grazing in a harvested cornfield.

The town of Chester has a sign saying they're home to a Miss Nebraska - she was the winner in 2017 and competed in the Miss America pageant that same year. 

Chester also calls itself "The Small Town with the Big Heart" because of a very odd story.  On Christmas Eve, 1985, local folks found the dead body of a young boy by the side of the road, wearing only his pajamas.  There was no clue about his identity and eventually the local folks gave him the name of Matthew and buried him in a grave that they decorated and maintained.  Two years later, a tip from a babysitter who read an article about the body led police to an Amish father.  He said he'd been driving down the road with his son Danny asleep on the back seat.  When he tried to wake him up he realized the boy had died.  Having only an 8th-grade education and living the limited life some Amish live (though this one drove a car so I'm skeptical), he couldn't figure out what to do with the body and left it by the road, after saying prayers over the body.  There wasn't any evidence of cause of death presented at the father's court hearing, so the judge allowed him to plead guilty to 2 gross misdemeanors and he was sentenced to 1½ years in jail.  The townspeople changed the name at the gravesite to Danny.  Weird story.

And then: Kansas Welcomes You!  I have to say this state does a pretty good job of making newcomers feel appreciated.  Not least of which is that the roads are much better than in Nebraska.

The trailer attached to a semi lost a load of ice attached to its undercarriage just as it passed me.  Scared both me and Dexter, because it was a really big load of ice, made a lot of noise, and pieces went scattering all around while we didn't have any idea what had happened.

I drove through the town of Concordia and I remembered having been there before.  In fact, I remembered having taken a rest break in the parking lot of a Methodist church we passed.  This is the town that's got the National Orphan Train Museum.

Concordia has a dog park (I don't remember this from before), so we stopped for Dext to run and to have some lunch.

Back on the road I remembered that I'd forgotten to get out some cash for the toll roads ahead and pulled to the side of the interstate.  Almost immediately a state trooper pulled up behind me to see what the problem was.  He was able to tell me that Google lied: the upcoming I-135 was not a toll road, and I wouldn't even hit the toll road until I'd gotten south of Wichita, 2 hours away.  I have no idea where Google got this idea, because I've researched it thoroughly online and found zippo support for I-135 being a toll road.  Anyway, having gotten this information, I didn't want to keep sitting here while I found cash which I wouldn't need for a long time, in case the trooper decided to tell me I shouldn't be hanging out on the side of an interstate.  So we got back on the road.

There was still some snow around despite the warm sun, probably because the temperature was still very cold (and the wind chill even colder).

I passed a sign telling me to turn right for Rock City Park, and I suddenly realized I knew what that was.  We'd stopped there during our month in Kansas, and Gracie and Dexter and I had walked around.  That's the place with the huge round boulders, much bigger than people, scattered around.

I passed a huge factory for Johns Manville, the company best known for roofing and insulation materials.

I'd forgotten that Kansas has working oil wells in the middle of cornfields.  The corn wasn't there this time of year, but the oil wells were still pumping.

We stopped at another rest area where they had a historical marker I found interesting.

There was a lot of sun to fog the photo.
What mostly interested me was the info about the Meadowlarks.

Speaking of birds, I saw quite a few hawks today, mostly sitting on fenceposts, because they're the highest point around.

We did pick up the toll road south of Wichita, and at the toll plaza I got an automated ticket, then turned it in right outside Wellington.  They charged me $1.75 for about 27 miles worth of driving.  In a way not worth it, but I've driven the no-toll alternative, and though there's nothing wrong with it, it's a lot more time-consuming.

By the time I'd stopped at a gas station and a grocery store, checked in at the campground, dumped my waste tanks, moved to a more level site, and walked Dexter, it was 4:15.  So I'd had a long day.  The good news - the really good news - was that my grey water had thawed out already and I got that tank emptied just fine.  I'd checked in for 2 nights, in case I needed more time in 50°+ weather for it to thaw.  So it was a great relief to take that worry off my list.