28 March 2003 11:04
our first day was fairly uneventful. somewhat fun filled though. we headed west. well, that was the direction we were headed mostly, so we figured it'd be a good place to start. we had 13 hours to do what was at the most nine hours of driving, so we weren't in any great hurry. our first stop was a john deere dealer (we seemed to stop at a good number of john deere dealers. in fact, we stopped at every john deere dealer we saw except for the ones we'd been to before). it was kind of cold, the kind of cold that makes a person wonder why on earth they're wearing blue jeans (you know, that lovely material that gets cold and then gets blown against your skin). but it did warm up after that. i believe that was the only time i wore my heavy coat for the rest of the trip.we decided to wander around in rural west kansas in search of the highest point in kansas. we made a 20 minute drive off the beaten path into an hour and half, but i think we had more fun that way. we were using an atlas, so i ended up saying things like, "it'll be 10-15 miles this way then 4-7 miles that way." we finally reached a road that deaded ended in an old homestead, so we drove past it into the pasture above it. then we got out and had a delightful argument on where the highest point in kansas was. i of course, knew exactly where it was, but kyle didn't trust my excellent sense of pilotage. he also claimed the bump i was pointing out was in colorado, which it wasn't, mostly.
we found the eventual peak to be somewhat humerous (okay, so we laughed really hard, but i think you had to be there to find it that hilarious). it was probably less than 50' higher than any of the other bumps in the area, but it had a marker on top, and a little picnic area off to one side, and it was smack dab in the middle of a cow pasture, complete with cattle guards in the driveway, and it was indeed only half a mile from the colorado border. If you've ever been to four corners (the one in NW new mexico), picture it on a smaller scale and you've got the prestigious "mt. sunflower."
from there we drove pretty much non-stop to Denver. oh we stopped to get gas in Limon, where we were beset by tumbleweed and dust storms. believe it or not, i'd never actually seen a tumbleweed tumble before this trip. i thought maybe they were just a myth of the old west. nope. i saw, eh, "numerous" tumbleweed this trip. i like how they shatter when the car ahead of you drives over one. organic shrapnel everywhere.
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