Nov 3,2010

Clear sunrise after a restful night of rejuvenating REM production. Unconscious preference for aligning our travel rig eastward, yup think we'll make it traditional....
On the way out of Sidney we made a quick stop to Walmart and exchanged the propane tanks for fresh ones.....then off on I80 just alittle ways to Julesburg CO, now south on 385. The burg of Holyoke showed up on the periscope after 30 miles on a heading of 180 deg....There it is below...

We stoped for a morning snack at this little park, weather warm, sun bright and good hippy vibes.
Below we are coming upon the next town south called Wray....interesting because the flat horizon is spiced with a bluff and a majestic windmill.

Made good time through on 385 via Idalia and then to Burlington which sits on a cross formed by 385 and I78. Now eastward as we said good bye again to Colorado and the Northwest.

Hello Kansas....gonna be here for awhile....might even seem longer because of the drift from Fall into Winter.
What the heck might we be in for when it comes to wintering on the plains ?

Made blistering blitzKreg time east on the smooth wide I78 all the way to Hays Kansas. We planned on camping here but had a hard time finding a camp ground which was compounded due to the fact that the Dodge was in desperate need of more liquid energy. Hays is composed of the old quaint red bricked town built by the old timers who lay in park like settings. .. (no gas stations for our  long rig) and no visible RV campgrounds.....and the new town which was awash in concrete and pavement, stop lights,traffic and a gobbly gook hodgepodge of grim faced store fronts.
Found a gas station here in the new section and witnessed a young girl who needed the help of 3 young bucks to push here stalled car from the intersection stoplight to the gas pumps....anyway with renewed confidence in our ability to remain mobile we headed south out of town but on the way found the Sunflower RV park just on the outer town limits.
Our first impression of the Sunflower was generally good, little bits of trash from the neighboring trailer ghetto ville were blown around by the wind and embedded amongst the old drying summer grass of the RV park , however the 60 year old deciduous trees awash in their golden leafed branches sang and danced for us in welcome and benevolence .
The Sunflower owner's name was..yup you guessed it..Mohammad (friendly!-dark skinned and white beard), from Pakistan. He had retired after 30 years from Domino's Pizza....claimed to be renting out several houses that he owned besides his venture with the RV park.  Was a nice guy, talked about Hays winter weather compared to that in Pakistan, he said it can get nasty here but recalled from his youth that the Himalaya weather is real brutal.
Had been windy all day and remained so as we made camp and plugged into the available electricity, left the rig all hooked up for a quick clean getaway in the morning. Good night Hays.