Colorado Trip 2017 - Day 2 (9/4/17)

Day 2 begins in Great Bend, KS upon awakening in the updated Baltzell Motel behind which we used to live. This is where we met Rosa Burroughs and family, as well as Jim & Connie Smith! That was about 50 years ago if you can believe it! Here is the home that Connie lived in behind Baltzell's when we met her!

Connie's home behind Baltzell's

Today will be a long day of travel, however, the family fully expects to see some scenic views via text as the trip ensues. Here is to a great day beginning with - sunrise!

9/4/17 - Our motel near sunrise

David Walter's trash truck

This is the truck David Walter drove to take trash once a week to the dump from the motel and all the homes. He would look forward to asking Jeff Smith and Lisa to ride along. They were always excited to go with him!

Here are trees we planted as 1" tall saplings. Now they are 25-20' tall and 52 years old. House beside them is in location where our home was behind Batzell's Motel.

Trees we planted as 1" Saplings!

Everitt's shed/garage and the back entrance, now updated, of Rosa's home.

          

On the road again and heading toward Colorado! Very excited to see that first glimpse of the mountains but along the way we are driving through St. John, KS. Here is our view...        

9:10am - view of St. John, KS

As we are driving through western KS around 9:45am, Dick tried to capture a quick video of the black-eyed susans which were growing alongside the highway. However, his speediness resulted in a time-lapse video of the floral array - just be forewarned you will feel a bit "rushed" in your viewing 😂. What we won't do to share our journeys....

As we are nearing Greensburg, KS around 10:00am we catch sight of our first wind turbine for this trip. In the distance here you can see a large one and several smaller ones. Of course, the large wind turbines have rotor diameters of approximately 144 feet so the "smaller" ones could be 80-100 feet in diameter!

           

On our many family trips to & from Colorado both from Great Bend and El Dorado, we passed these crazy statues east of Dodge City, KS. Here's a video for the memories...

2:30pm - 30 miles east of Dodge City, KS

As we are driving west, we are seeing more and more of a haze. Don't know if you can tell from the pic, but it is very "hazy" all around from the wildfires out west. Kind of reminds us of 2006 when all of our vacation pics had a very hazy look. If you enlarge the photo you can see Dodge City in the distance. It's a bright sunny day, with no clouds, but we can't see 1/2 mile away because of the haze.

3pm - almost to Dodge City

As we approached Garden City, KS, we saw these giant turbine blades. Our good friend Ron White drove a pilot car to guide these to their location for years

  

4:40pm - Garden City, KS - giant wind turbine blades

5pm - Dinner in Garden City, KS

At 5pm we finally stopped to have a delicious dinner in Garden City, KS. 

This delicious dinner of eggs, ham, and biscuits hit the spot even though Gma is texting everyone with Gpa's phone because she left hers in the car! 

We need our energy to keep chugging away on the journey to Lamar, CO tonight. We still have 105 miles to go. Whew! 

7:45pm - Crossing the KS/CO border!

At 7:45pm we CROSSED THE COLORADO LINE! Yippee! One of our favorite times in the journey second only to the first view of the mountains!

Note the hazy sunset out there!

Finally, at 9pm we are safe and sound in our motel room in Colorado.

Sweet dreams ... and check back for more travel adventures tomorrow!

Safe & Sound 😘  😘  😘

To be continued...