Today I managed to cross the states of Missouri and Kansas. Or all but 20 miles of Kansas. I got an early 7AM start that was too early for the free coffee at the motel! Stopped at a McDonald's at about 8 AM for a large coffee that tasted absolutely wonderful.

Since I had gotten around most of St. Louis yesterday I had no problems with traffic. I did notice that I-70 started out with four westbound lanes, so the evening rush hour must be something spectacular. The Missouri landscape is just interesting enough to keep you semi occupied, perfect for driving. I made good use of the radio and some tapes for quite a while and mostly drove on "auto pilot". When I stopped for a "Bio Break" I was surprised to notice that the gas gauge was pegged at "Empty"! When I stopped for gas it took 11 gallons, since the shop manual gives the tank capacity as 11.9 gallons this may be some sort of record.

The western edge of Missouri is dominated by Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas. There is a virtual spaghetti plate of interstate roads around these two cities I choose the ring road rather than attempt to navigate that tangle with no prior experience.

Kansas started off with a fair amount of construction on the Kansas turnpike but then I-70 was in good shape with a speed limit of 70 mph, so I made very good time. I had expected to spend the night in Hayes Kansas, a little more than half way across the state, but I got all the way to Goodland just 20 miles from the Colorado border.

Western Kansas is so astonishingly flat that the view out a side window is such a featureless collection of horizontal elements as to be disorientating. At times there is nothing to catch the eye, no tree, building, structure or hill to give scale to the scene. It can be a bit like staring into a "Moiré" pattern of closely spaced parallel lines, you feel you may be starting to fall into it! The agricultural fields are huge to the extent that equipping a tractor with a sextant and chronometer or GPS system might seem a perfectly reasonable proposition. Good to get out now and then to re calibrate your sense of the scale of the world.

If I get a good nights sleep and an early start, I can make it to Moab Utah tomorrow. That will be most of a day earlier than planned. I will probably have to spend the night in a motel and get a camp ground the next day. I 'v just noticed that Goodland is at 3700 feet above sea level, that is 3000 feet higher than Pittsburgh. That means I've been climbing at a rate of 2.26 feet / mile, not enough to be noticeable but it does add up.