Up at 4 am and headed to Dodge City, Kansas with 31,000 pounds of pallets.    Just wooden pallets.   Seems odd.  The trailer is completely full though.  We are taking them to a meat processing plant.

As we get closer to Kansas the hills flatten out and we start to see all the farms again.   A lot of grasses are starting to grow and there are big dark green fields now where there used to be brown.   It doesn’t look like the corn has been planted yet so you still see fields of brown.

There is also a different smell crossing over in to Kansas.   Yes, we are now back in cattle country.   First thing we saw at the line was a stockyard of several hundred cows.   Boy, that was pungent.

I saw the first red fox today.  It was sitting back from the road a bit just looking around.   We went by too fast for me to get a picture though.   Hope I see another one and can get a picture!

We also saw two grouse as we went down the road.  We must have flushed them out when we went by.   Such colorful birds.

Arrived at our stop, Cargill, the beef processing plant.   There is not enough essential oils out there to cover up the smell from these places.  Not only the plant but the dozens of trucks with cows on them that are just – WOW!  What a smell.

Traded trailers and headed to next stop at National Beef in Liberal Kansas.   We go to check in and order isn’t ready.  It’s so not ready they don’t even have a trailer number assigned to the load yet.  Lovely!   Well, time is about up so we go in to town and park at a gas station for the night.   Chinese buffet next door looked busy so we went over and had dinner.   It was ok.  Good hot and sour soup. I don’t know why Chinese places use dark meat in all their dishes.   Eewww.

We decided to go for a walk and turned right in to Dorothy’s house.  We are in Kansas after all.   It’s a cute little house and yard that several people in town decided to put up and their names are the yellow brick road.   We missed being able to go in since its late but walked around.   So cool.   There were no flying monkeys we could see so Greg was okay.

We are turning in.   They told us to call every couple of hours and see if our load is ready.   Probably just going to wait until morning and go from there.

DG:  Well, we didn’t see any flying monkeys, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t there somewhere.  Probably up in the trees watching our every move.  Don’t like those things.  Ain’t natural.  Flying monkeys.  Huh.  Anyway, pretty neat little attraction.

My navigator did it again.  Got us stopped with about eight minutes to spare.  I think she just does that to watch me squirm.

Seeing Kansas for the umpteenth time I am getting more and more drawn to it.  There’s something about seeing oceans of farm land just as far as the eye can see.  Coming through Texas we swore the horizon was farther away than anywhere we had ever been.  Guess it was just an illusion or the fact that we were in Texas and every thing is supposed to bigger there.  It was pretty sparse in the upper left of the panhandle.  New Mexico, wait, did I tell you this already?  Seems familiar.  Oh well, I’m not going to take the time to look back.  I’ll just tell you now.  This will serve two purposes.  One; it will be new if I haven’t told it already and Two; it will prepare you for what’s to come as I repeat myself often.

New Mexico is definitely the Land of Enchantment as stated on their license plates and the welcome sign as you cross the border.  Just looking at the sky and landscape gives you a sense of awe and a feeling that spirits live there.  They would not be crowded if they did as that has to be the most sparsely populated place we have seen yet.  Beautiful though.

Colorado, and the Rockies?  Wow, every body has to see this before you go.  Didn’t care much for Denver though.  Too crowded.  In spite of the crowding the town did seem rather truck friendly.  The Wal Mart had special parking for commercial trucks.  A place set aside just for us.  A lot of Wal Marts won’t even let us on their lots.  Many do, but there are some that don’t want us in there.  That’s fine.  We’ll just go to Kroger.  I guess Denver has to be truck friendly as there are a lot of trucks going through that place.  We dropped off the Coca Cola syrup to a place there, in Denver, that is based in Rocky Mount, NC.  Imagine that.

I had some philosophical thoughts I was going to lay on you but the Chinese Buffet blocked my thought processes somewhere around my belly button.  Can’t think with a full stomach.  I was probably just going to go on and on about abandoned farm buildings and machinery.  There is a lot of that out there you know.  And I wonder……..at what point does one just walk away from a house, a barn, or equipment that has served one well for so many years.  I will ponder this some more and get back to you.  Perhaps after the sweet and sour chicken, hot and spicy squid, shrimp and sushi wear off.

Oh, did I mention there were still piles of snow along the roads in Denver?  Not for me.  Oh, and Pueblo, CO, so much poverty.  Anybody remember those Public Service Announcements that used to be on TV and how they always said they came from some government office in Pueblo, CO?  Well, this is the place.  Could explain the poverty.  I don’t know.  It was just very sad seeing all of the run down housing and closed businesses.

On a more cheery note, we are on our way to Florida to see the grandkids, woohoo!

Well, time to chill and digest.  Hope all are well.  Good night and God bless.