Oregon, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, etc

[pdedse]

Before I left Topeka for Denver, I took some time to visit the downtown area. Grace Cathedral. Burned down a number of years ago, but has since been rebuilt

Topeka High School, still one of the most impressive HS in the States...but I'm biased as I graduated from there in '82.
The Topeka Capitol building. It just underwent major renovations to the tune of $360 million dollars. It did look awesome, inside and out. In '66 a tornado hit the dome and when I lived in T-town, the copper dome was green and you could see where they patched the damage from the tornado.


Day 9: Topeka, KS to Denver, CO 580 miles, my longest riding day.

I had every intention of making it to Oberlin, KS where I would break up the Topeka-Denver trip into two days. Said my goodbye to my brother...

And sped away...my brother snapped these as I drove away, not often you get to see how you look on your bike...I look like a dork!
It was cool this morning, and for the first time since I left Wyoming, I had to stop and put on clothes under the riding gear. The Kansas River before Wamego, on my way to Manhattan.

I really wanted to try some tacos here but it was too early in the morning

This was the only museum that interested me during the trip

I attended 5 undergraduate universities (St. John's in Kansas; one in Sevilla, Spain; Washburn; Kansas U; and Kansas St U.). Received my degree from KSU even tho I only went there 1.5 years. Lots of good memories.


KSU Wildcats!

Kansas...the sunflower state

I've been on hiway 70 far too many times to want to take that route again, so outside of Manhattan, I headed north / northwest on 24 to Smith's Center where I met up with 36


I think 36 was my favorite stretch of road during the trip, even tho some might take issue with it's,....uh...flatness.


No mountains and few trees, not many curves...just long stretches of straightness, some gently rolling hills...but mainly......f-l-aaaaa-t. I love it. Can see forever!
Got to Oberline around 2pm, much sooner than I thought and too early in the day to stop. Consulted with me sis in Denver and we thought about 5 more hours to Denver, so why not push through and she'd have dinner waiting. Sounded good to me! What I didn't think about was limited gas availability on 36. Filled in St. Francis, KS, but then there's no much till 36 meets with 70 about 35 miles before Denver, about 150 miles. How many of you get 150 miles on a tank with a 15-20mph headwind blowin' against you? I was getting about 38mpg against the wind. I wasn't too worried, because I thought I could always ask someone...but when you're out there, there's not a whole of folks to ask gas from. Was really relieved when this pump was open (store was already closed, but it's one of those un-manned pumps) and even more so when it accepted my card.

Looks like the scene from "Castaway" at then end when Chuck (Tom Hanks) has to decide which direction he has to take.