Tues - We're Not in Kansas Anymore! Wed - Back in the Mountains, Again!

We stayed in Russell, Kansas on Monday night but did not take a picture of our site until after I wrote the blog that night.

Each site had their own 'porch' swing and we tried it out after it had cooled down a bit. I think the thermometer was over 100 all day and probably only cooled down to 75 degrees!

Right outside our campsite was an oil museum. Because we waited for cooler weather it was already closed when we went to explore it.

Kansas is called the Sunflower State so I had to make sure I got a picture of one of the fields we passed by.

Not far from the sunflowers we crossed into Colorado. The scenery did not look much different than that of Kansas. What we did notice was that we were gradually gaining in elevation and the humidity was starting to lessen.

The town of Burlington is only about 30 miles from the Kansas/Colorado border. We had passed quite a few John Deere lots and Gary would love to have stopped to look but we kept on going. Someday!

The reason we stopped in Burlington was to see this old carousel that is 105 years old! It has a Wurlitzer organ for the music and all the animals are static - they don't move up and down like today's carousels. Almost everything is original, including the paintings that adorn the center and ceiling of the ride.

It only cost 25 cents for a ride so of course I had to try it. Because the animals do not move the actual ride travels faster than normal. It goes 10-12 mph while the modern ones only go 5 to 7 mph. Another thing I noticed was that the animals were smaller on the inner side of the ride - large on the outside, medium in the middle and small on the inside.

Gary, Apollo and Lady waited on the outside of the carousel but I think they would have loved to go on it!

We stopped at a KOA camp in Strasburg, Colorado, about 40-50 miles East of Denver. It was nice enough, but still too expensive. The one good thing about it was the ice cream parlor - we had banana splits for dinner!

I love this picture. Behind our campground were the railroad tracks and a lot of grain elevators. I know that this one set of tracks is still in use because we heard the trains several times while we were staying there but there were also a few side tracks with some old trains.
This picture and the next two I took for our friends that are train buffs - Doug and Mike - enjoy!

I think this is a coal tender. It seemed to be in the best shape of all the cars.

I don't know if this engine was diesel or coal or steam - help me out, train friends. Some of it was fixed up nice but the windows were still boarded up. There were also some passenger cars and some freight cars but I decided to only post the three above.

Now it is Wednesday. I had a heck of a time trying to post the blog last night so I decided just to wait until today. We headed into Denver and tried to skirt the downtown as much as possible. I take pictures of what I think is beautiful all the time so I took a picture of something else today. I know that factories and refineries are necessary, but they sure look ugly (to me).

Ah, more my type. Rocks, mountains, trees, rivers, nature. That soothes me!

The Wyoming sign had someone else recording it in their travel diary! A picture within a picture. By now we were already close to 6000 foot elevation.

This bison ranch can be visited, but we just passed by. Can't stop to see everything.

Wyoming rocks!

This is the highest point on Interstate 80 and sits below a monument of Abraham Lincoln. I tried to take a picture of the monument as we went by but it didn't turn out very well.

We were almost to our campsite for the day - and just beyond this spot we came across a real bad accident which had the interstate closed in the eastbound direction. A travel trailer was ripped apart but there were a lot of emergency vehicles around so I couldn't see much more. Did not want to see it anyway. Gary and I were pretty quiet after passing it by.

We were heading into a storm - now we are in camp waiting for it to pass over us. We plan on staying in Rawlins for two nights.
Tomorrow we will go find an area called Martin's Cove. It is near where the Martin Handcart Company of 1856 was caught in an October blizzard. Rescue wagons from Salt Lake brought food and clothing and they continued to the temporary refuge at this cove. This location will have exhibits about the Mormon migrations, the Oregon Trail, the California Trail, the Pony Express and the Martin and Willie Handcart companies. We may get a flavor for the hardships of the pioneers.
If there is still time we might visit the Frontier Prison, formerly the Wyoming State Penitentiary which was used until 1981.

Just a funny note - Gary finally got on his ham radio when we reached camp and tuned in to the high frequency channels to talk to a group he had not contacted since we drove East. When he tuned in the awning started coming out. As soon as he began talking the slide outs began to move. When he was finished we found out that the bedroom slide had come in and was going back out while the kitchen slide was activated as well. I think there will be a little adjustment made to the wiring when we return home - can't afford to have them move while we are on the road!

Hopefully the thunderstorms won't be too bad tonight and tomorrow - at least it is cooler!