day 26

shawnee, kansas, to north platte, nebraska, 478 miles.
we're not in kansas any more, gang. today was another good example of the difference between the interstates and everything else. the interstates are great for getting to a destination; the other roads are great if you want the journey to be as interesting as the destination. i started the day on interstate 70 headed west from the kansas city area. but then i saw a sign for the wizard of oz museum in wamego, kansas. passed on the museum, but there was also an oz winery in wamego, and i picked up a nice bottle of yellow brick road merlot. they say they make the wine right there in oz world, but i wonder where they get the grapes. eastern washington? didn't see any grapes growing anywhere around wamego. just corn and cows. oz world naturally led north to the pony express home station museum, which led to the geographic center of the contiguous 48 states. who knew? apparently they had a bunch of surveyors and assorted engineers and brain surgeons figure out that the geographic center of the u.s. is just outside lebanon, kansas. and it turned out that for the 10 or so minutes i was there, i was the lone person at the center of the universe, er, country. any significance to that? i should hope so. the back roads through northwestern kansas and north into nebraska were just very nice. and fast. i'll also go on record and say that, so far, the folks in kansas have been by far the friendliest. they strike up conversations for any reason: the weather, the car, the washington license plate or just the fact you're headed into a store and they're headed out. small towns in kansas and nebraska, like other midwest states, still have streets made out of brick in their downtown cores. nice to look at; not so nice to drive on. drove on my first toll road today, and saw my first coal train of the trip. the mount hope area of kansas was the flip side to the happy day. i had passed a few dilapidated, run down, worn down, falling down, ramshackle houses and wondered what happened to the folks who once lived there, then saw the cemetery with "mount hope" across the gate. at one time, the folks living there had some hope, but no more. don't know whether it was the depression or dust bowl or what, but folks obviously just packed up and left a long, long time ago. switching topics now with this smooth transition, many thanks to jean for the CDs she mailed to me in omaha. fortunately, the omamaniacs were in kansas city, so i was able to get the package. excellent road music. if anyone needs a "theme" CD put together, jean's the person. lastly, don't ask me why, but for some reason i spent a lot of thinking time on the road today thinking about the next road trip. hmmm. good night, jean; good night, ray; good night, olivia, who called me today to say i had 58 voice messages on the phone at home...
tomorrow: north platte to hopefully sheridan, wyoming; a long day.