Garden City, KS, to Kansas City, MO

Day 6 - 387 miles

Across Kansas and across the Plains.

I really liked driving through Kansas. Some people say it's flat and boring, and some of it is. However, if you look a bit deeper, you see the natural beauty not far beneath the surface. Wherever the land is allowed to lie for any amount of time, the prairie grass seems to quickly reestablish itself. There was more actual prairie than I thought there would be.

US Highway 50 is quite amazing at stages out here. You literally are rolling through residential neighborhoods at times, in little towns where the highway is in fact the main street.

I stopped at a particular place to look at the prairie grass, and also where some of the original Santa Fe Trail wagon tracks lie. By this stage I'm really aware of the massive distances involved in crossing this continent. How people did this 150 years ago in wagons under extremely arduous circumstances is beyond me.

I was able to keep up a pretty good speed on the road out here. 75-80 mph, a lot of the time. Every 10 or 20 miles we would come to a town and have to slow down for a few minutes, then we'd be off again. Very little other traffic, so not much to worry about there. Preferable to driving on the Interstate, I think.

The afternoon weather is becoming a bit of a pain. The day kind of goes like this:

- Get up. Coffee. Pack bike. Weather 80F+

- Early afternoon. Stop to refuel and get some brunch (getting very fed up with "road food.")

- Weather in the afternoons well into the high 90's. Very uncomfortable if not moving.

- Late afternoons very hot and muggy: VIOLENT thunderstorms begin. Suit-up into raingear. Very, very uncomfortable, and it slows everything down, taking the raingear off and on.

- Evening. A bit cooler, and welcome. You leave the raingear on, as the temperature drops. At high speed it's about right. Maybe take it off later.

Evening, 6pm-9pm, is a nice time to drive, and you can really clock up some miles, and don't have the awful heat or thunderstorms to deal with. I've had late afternoon HEAVY rain every day since eastern Nevada. At this stage you want to get as many miles done as possible, but you also are cognizant of the fact that you need to stop and get a place to stay. And get some food (that isn't crap). Also, we really don't want to be driving this lonely road after dark.

Today, I was making good time though, and eastern Kansas was getting greener and greener. Eventually, the small road became a bigger divided highway, and eventually we joined with Interstate 35, and Kansas City was looming on the highway.

Kansas City is a GREAT TOWN! I would come back here again. There's a real renaissance going on here - lots of cool shops, restaurants, and bars, and plenty happening at all hours. I stayed at the "Q Hotel + Spa" (www.theqhotel.com), a little gem of a place in the Westport district.

I went down to the downtown former "Garment" district afterwards, and met up with former Russian Hill (San Francisco) denizens Marco and Shileigh, who moved here in March. I had eaten well of a decent greek salad with spinach and olives - what a relief! Marco had told me of a great late-night eatery right by my hotel. Marco and his wife Shileigh were regulars at "Rex Cafe" in San Francisco, and seem to have firmly established themselves in a few similar places in Kansas City. It was fun to see them and their new friends, and this would be a good place to come back to and spend more time. Thank you guys for being so welcoming to me! :-)

I got back to the Q at about 2:15am, and updated my blog for the last few days (Kansas and Colorado). By the time I hit the sack, it was 4:30am. I resolved to get up early though - my bike clothes (and underwear!) had taken their share of punishment with the rain and dust and sweat. I was literally DYING to wash some clothes. My new BMW summer pants were starting to look like a coal miner's workpants. Marco and Shileigh kindly offered to let me use their washer and dryer, but I had already scoped out a laundromat up the street from the Q. These clothes were "industrial" dirty, and I didn't want to mess up some friends' place with this lot!

We're into Missouri now. We'll cross the river and the state tomorrow.

Onwards!