Countryside was mostly amber waves of grain (now where have I heard that before?). Interspersed with the farmland and cattle were donkey engines busy pumping oil out of the ground. Farmers back in the 50's discovered there was oil on their land and they have pumping it out ever since. It's not quite the boom that occurred in Western North Dakota, but every little bit helps. Ken told me something interesting while we were visiting. It seems the farmers no longer plow the land, it takes too much fuel and effort to turn the ground over, so now they harvest the previous crop and when the time is right, they just drill and seed the soil. They huge huge tractors to pull wide rigs which drill, drop seed, fertilize and then move on. Some of the tractors have switched from huge rubber tires to tracks which can get through the fields easier. At one town, we even saw a Jeep which had tracks!
Where US 83 (north to south) hits US 36 (east to west), we stopped in Oberlin, Kansas for breakfast. Vi asked if there was a golf course nearby - to my self, I said there's less than 200 people in this town, why would there be a golf course. To our surprise, they said there was a nine-hole course down by the "crick", but not sure whether there was anyone there yet. Drove a little to the east and found the Oberlin Country Club. The OCC puts the "country" in Country Club. Upon reaching the parking lot, there was no one around; however, there was a sign with the rates and instructions. After putting some money in an envelope and dropping it in a slot in the side of the building, we went over to the cart barn, backed a golf cart out and loaded up. First time we've ever used a self-service golf course - kind of like when you're camping and there's no ranger on duty.
Turned out to be a fine little 9-hole course which ran along Sappo Creek. The only person around was a man mowing the course and he never even bothered to come over and say hello. The course was in great shape with good teeing areas, nice fairways (when we found them) and excellent greens. No one else around and on some holes, it was a little difficult to figure out where the greens were - lots of doglegs. All in all, it was a fun time. It wasn't until we got to the eighth hole that we saw someone else on the course, but they never caught up to us. Loaded up the clubs and headed east on US 36 over to Denver. That highway is straight as an arrow - it kind of unfolds in front of you like a ribbon across the prairie and occasionally they throw in a kind of turns just to keep you awake.
Had a late lunch in St Francis and then drove out of Kansas into Colorado, passing into the Mountain Time Zone at the state border. With our impeccable timing, we hit Denver at rush hour (kind of like our hitting Salt Lake City at their rush hour). From driving through countryside without another car on the road (there was farm equipment, but we whizzed around them), we went to parking lot highways in Denver. Eventually, it broke free and we arrived at Paul and Sandy's here in Centennial.
Sat out on their patio and admired the view of the Rockies to the west. Temperature was around 90 degrees and, for a change, there was no rain on our trip. We must have started the rain on its way east and then left it all behind us. Excellent salad and pasta (brown rice) for dinner. Needless to say, we did have a glass of wine (or two). Fun evening and good conversation. Sun set over the Rockies as we had dinner, but afterwards, we went back out on the patio to talk.
Later I'll throw in a few pictures of the trip from North Platte to Denver, so come back later to catch them.
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