Not Just From Point A to Point B

Many folks would tell you that the stretch of I-70 from Kansas City to Denver is a long, boring and monotonous drive. Could be true. Just a matter of perspective. In any case, we can decide to enjoy the ride as well as the destination.

This is a rare year for much of Kansas where everything’s still green in August. The Flint Hills region, which runs through central Kansas, is a vivid green – as far as one can see in any direction. Its gently rolling hills are home to a large area of tallgrass prairie, the largest left in the world.

The Flint Hills bring to mind Indians, buffalo, cowboys, cattle drives and old westerns. I daydreamed my way through the region which ends by the time you leave Junction City and Fort Riley.

Windmills Old & New

Before long we saw a windmill farm that stretched for miles with hundreds of windmills running and generating power. This led to a long discussion of the history of wind generation and the diversity of power generation methods. We marveled at the creativity of the human mind.

As we drove on, I noticed old windmills still operating in the same fields as their modern counterparts. Pretty awesome to think of the old windmills generating power to bring water to a farmer’s cattle and today’s windmills generating power for large areas of our country.

Of course I stopped and took pictures. As we left the windmills, I saw stone posts that once held the miles and miles of barbed-wire fencing. Long rows of the stone posts still stand beside the steel posts used today. Cattle – too many to count – grazed in the fields. Lots of calves still stayed close to their mothers.

Walter P. Chrysler Home

We drove through Ellis, Kansas, which boasts a railroad museum and the boyhood home of Walter P. Chrysler. Several old Chrysler and Dodge vehicles were parked around the house.

Small towns dotted the landscape with the co-ops and churches standing tall on the horizon.

Before I realized it, we passed through Goodland. We drove past the “Welcome to Colorful Colorado” sign and wondered how many times it’s served as the background for pictures.