Day 13 - Denver to Concordia, KS

Today we left Colorado and with the Rockies in our rear view mirror we headed down off the Colorado Plateau. We started in the morning at about 5,400 feet with the temp in the upper 30s/low 40s. By the time we got to our destination, 480 miles later, we had dropped to an elevation of 1,400 feet and the temps had warmed to the low 80s.

We made our way east on US34 into Nebraska.

We saw several farmers harvesting their crops with their big tractors as well as a number of farm equipment dealers. The size of these machines is quite impressive.

Unlike the farms in Colorado where the hay bales are square and stacked in giant walls, the ones in Nebraska seem to favor the round hay bales spread out in their fields.

Although we did see a tractor trailer hauling a trailer full of square hay bales.

We had lunch in McCook before turning south on US83 to cross into Kansas and continue east on US36.

Not only did the landscape change from mountains to flat farmland, the winds were quite strong. We had winds out of the southeast at a continuous 25-30mph with gusts approaching the upper 40s for about 150 miles today with the strongest occurring just before our lunch break in McCook, NE. Here you can see the US flag standing straight out from the strong wind. We were thankful for blue skies and not a rainstorm (or tornado) to add to the windy conditions.

We passed by 8 feedlots today but lucked out with only being subjected to the ruthless odor of 3 of them due to the others being positioned downwind from us.

Curiously, our route today followed a river with an interesting name, the Republican River.

The river snaked along the flat farm lands and we crossed it several times. I wonder if the Democrats have their own river as well and if it too wonders back and forth never seeming to know which direction to head?  ;-)

We arrived in Concordia just after 6pm CST (we lost one hour today with the change in time zones) and had a quick dinner next door at the Pizza Hut. Tomorrow, we’ll head for St. Louis with our destination just east of the Mighty Mississippi.