Ahhh…a nice hot shower after a day of driving.

Yep, that’s right. I am on the go again. Headed back up to Washington for some appointments. I left mid-morning and got to the middle of Kansas. I decided to get a half-day head start since I was not sure about some of the weather reports I have been seeing. Plus, I don’t want to drive those long days anymore.

It looks worse than normal going across the east half of the state on I-70. The drought is looking pretty bad. I saw ponds dried up in a few spots, lots of dead brush and everything is some shade of brown. I saw an article that said Colorado is really in bad shape so this is not a surprise since KS gets its weather from CO. And, Montana has 13 active wildfires. In December!

I was very surprised about the condition of the Interstate I drove on today. I have ridden and driven across this state many, many times over the last several decades and I have never seen it in this bad shape. But, at least you can drive 75!

It is also surprising how some places have really changed. Hays, KS, halfway to Denver, has really grown into an oasis for travelers. Major hotels, restaurants, plus the local joints give people quite a few options for whatever they may need.

I wish I would have thought to bring my moka pot for espresso but it would not do me any good in the hotel anyhoo. The one I am in tonight does not have a kitchen so nowhere to heat it up. I hate buying overpriced lousy coffee from a stand (especially a certain chain of lousy coffee) but I will have to hit the local stands on this trip.

I don’t know if I will do much sightseeing on the way up since I have places to be, but I may have a little extra time if the weather holds out the closer I get. On the way back I have time to stop if I find something interesting. I considered stopping at the Cozy Inn to get a sack of burgers, but a sack of burgers now is only about two of them.

Travel is really hard on my diet and many days I don’t even eat other than a few healthy road snacks. I ended up bringing some things from home to eat since they would go bad while I am gone and I really hate to waste food – a big pet peeve of mine. It saves some money as well plus I am not eating deep fried salt chunks. I’ll be making up a PB&J for lunches the next few days.

I try to do what I can to eat decently on the road but the choices are very slim, especially more so now since I will not sit down to eat in a restaurant. Even some of the “healthy” stuff like salads are an exercise in false advertising. It gets pretty damn frustrating to sort through the shit we are sold in this country that is called “food”. I’d rather not eat than do that to myself more than every once in a while so I don’t.

It’s good to be back out on a long road trip again, even though I am still a bit under the weather. I am feeling a littler better otherwise I would have scrubbed the mission. I think by the time I get to my appointments i will be much better. Next trip I can bring Rider since he will be healed up pretty well by the time I get back. I just wish he could drive, but he cannot reach the pedals.

Until next post!