Road Trip Maine - On the way home 09-05-16

Tonight I am in Limon, Colorado, at another HIE.  They are so much alike I forget where I am sometimes.  I have learned that when I leave my room I not only have to take the key cards but also the little envelope with my room number written on it.  I had to go  to the desk once to ask them what room I was in!  I checked in here early determined to work on the newsletter until it was finished.  And it is finished.  It isn't up to my usual issues, but I have had too many electronic problems on this trip.  I didn't blog last night because I couldn't stay online  and had to  keep signing in again and again.

This is "big sky" country and there isn't much to see.  You can flip through the pictures and get a sense of how lonely it is.  The speed limit is 75mph and drivers are pretty good about staying in the right lane except to pass..  of course, there is always a numbskull on the road.  When there was nobody on the road I had to try out the Lexus to see how it does at 100mph.  No wobble or weaving, it hugged the road nicely.

I was talking to a friend about the bad carpet choices in motels so I took a few pictures at HIE in Salina  where I stayed last night. 

Carpet in my room.

Carpet in hall and lobby.

One thing to look at is the giant wind farm installations.  They are everywhere.

Occasionally there is a farm, usually a substantial intrusion on the flatness.

I have been looking for a Dairy Queen, but maybe there aren't any these days.  So, I finally stopped in Flagler to find some ice cream of some kind.  Ended up at a McDonald's (where I do not usually eat) and tried an Oreo Flurry.  It was quite good, soft ice cream with chocolate "sand" mixed in.  They serve it with this weird spoon sticking out of it.  I asked the  girl what it was and she first said a straw, but even I could tell it wasn't a square straw, so I pulled it out  as she said, "Oh, I  mean a spoon." It is a strange instrument, but it worked to eat the Flurry.  Yummy.

There are very few hills or even slight rises and looking from the moving car one sees not much.

 

This is a dry corn field.  But the bump you see on the horizon to the left is a large brick church in a little town with lots of trees. 

 

Don't know what this crop is.  It is about  3-4 feet high and the tassel like  tops are a rusty red, but the large leaves are a dusty green.  There were vast fields of it near Hay, KS.

 

 

This is the most common view - flat land, flat roadway, flat blue sky.  I drove 500 miles today - all pretty much the same. .

Occasionally there is a billboard, but most are ripped apart by the wind which blows across I-70 and wears out my hands and arms from making constant corrections to the wheel. 

I'm not sure they use these grain elevators any longer.  There is one in every little town, I think.

Here are some different silos near a town.

I got off for gas and came across the I-70 diner, which is a double wide and seemed to have lots of cars parked around.

Their sign is this pink Caddy elevated about 30 feet up and can be see from the  highway.

  

Sunset from the window of my motel room.

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