Beautiful Plains (East CO, Kansas)

Well we tried to leave Colorado Springs Wednesday, April 20 but "The Unit" had other ideas!  It would NOT start so called our Good Sam Emergency Road Service.  Gentleman showed up and tried to convince us the RV batteries needed to be replaced.  The computer was not recognizing the transmission.  The tech did suggest disconnecting the batteries and see if that would "Reboot" the computer.  It worked and we were on the road about 2 hours late!  Of course trying to duplicate this electrical situation for a trained tech is difficult because it does not happen all the time. That is why I carry wrenches!
We headed east on CO 94, US 40 to I-70.  We had the road to ourselves!  Cattle ranches and oil wells was the scenery, no mountains.  We made it to Russell, Kansas, home of Bob Dole, on the first leg.

Active well outside our campground in Russell

Lonely Farm in the middle of Nowhere!

That great "Western" Beef, eating the brown grass





Windmills!  The high winds turn these babies!

Thursday we drove (extremely high winds on I-135, ~ 25 mph with gusts to 50.  This played h___ with the fuel economy down about 1 mpg) to Wichita and did some touring.  Interesting facts about Wichita, it has served 11,000 years as a trading center for nomadic people.  The Wichita Indians were the first permanent settlers in 1863,  and it became a city in 1870.  Its nickname was "cowtown" due to the cattle drives from Texas.  Wichita produces more than 40% of the world's general aviation aircraft, home to Beech, Cessna and of course Hexcel's favorite customer Spirit, a former Boeing operation.
We went to the Cowtown Museum.  Building restorations and reproductions (40 total) of the 1865 - 1880 era.   Attendance was small so we had individual guided tours of the buildings and special events.

Friday morning we pulled in the slides and headed to Branson, MO.  More rural scenery, US 400, across southeast Kansas into Missouri.  Unfortunately we were heading into the storm front that has been stalled in the area.