U. S. Route 54

Lots of dots on Pat's Google time-line from our travels!

Our youngest grandchild, Clara, graduated from kindergarten Thurs.

Lots of warning vehicles following the line painter below.

The RV turned over 50,000 near Emporia, KS.

Beginning of the beautiful Flint Hills. Enjoying a leisurely drive through Kansas.

Thank you to Sutherlands in El Dorado for letting us spend Weds. night.

We checked our 2020 Sonic and it has almost 49,000 driving miles.

Hopefully this pipe insulation will cut down on the RV washer vibration. If it works guests in the upper bunk will no longer get a massage.

Thursday we passed through Goddard. TX. Their Carnegie Library  was dedicated in 1914. Between 1883 and 1929, 1,169 of the total 2,509 Carnegie libraries were built in the U.S. with money donated by Andrew Carnegie.

Pratt, Kansas is the "Home of Beautiful Women and, Hot and Cold Water Towers." The Miss Kansas Beauty Pageant is held here every year. The century-old water towers were labeled 'Hot' and 'Cold' back in 1956. I was telling our 11-year-old granddaughter, Alexa, about them and she asked if the words were in blue and red. Hmmm... did they consider this, or like me, did it not even cross their minds?

Last year, from another road, we saw other sculptures of M. T. Liggett's near Mullinville. I guess the good news is I at least remembered seeing them!

We boondocked Thurs. night at a rest area near Mineola, KS. We had a trailer join us and several semis.

In the distance part of the wind farm that the rest area was in the middle of.

Liberal, KS has some interesting sights including the open book library, Pioneer Mother of Kansas statue, and the International Pancake Day Hall of Fame. Although the Wizard of Oz did not name a specific town in Kansas, Liberal jumped on the chance to become Dorothy's home town. I still find the Wizard of Oz terrifying so we skipped the touristy stuff on that topic.

Originally entry to the library was through a door in the spine of the book but in 1981 they moved the door to the side.

The Pioneer Mother of Kansas statue (holding a baby) was on the library's lawn.

In Liberal, for over 70 years, they've celebrated Pancake Day on Shrove Tues., also called Fat Tues., Carnival Tues., and Pancake Tues. There's a friendly competition between Liberal and Olney, England where women run 415 yards flipping pancakes.Olney 40 wins, Liberal 31.

Olney has a longer history of Pancake Day and a story to go with it: Pancake Day history.

I don't think we saw many days that weren't windy when we lived in KS. Saw lots of wind farms in KS, although Texas is the state with the most wind farms. Iowa, however, generates more than 50% of it's power from wind and leads the nation in per capita wind power. Way to go Iowa!

Even with a small population most towns in SW Oklahoma and NW Texas had grain elevators.

Friday we drove in 3 states and landed at a Love's truck stop.  Several Love's have put in full hook-up spots for RV's. There are are 6 spots here in Dalhart, TX with 4 occupied.

Where are the Piepers now? Dalhart, TX