This morning at 3 AM, the trains started coming thru town and blew their whistles – you know, two long, one short, and one long, with lots of space in between. So as we are laying there we hear them come thru each crossing and count “long” “long” “short” “long” with lots of seconds in between. Well needless to say we were wide awake and we also were thinking about the severe storm coming in - many, many warnings… So we decided to pack up and were on the road by 4:45 AM. It was dark so no pictures of the rest of Texas and into Oklahoma. Right around the Texas border and north into Oklahoma, there are miles and miles of the large windmills. I have taken pictures of them before but I will tell at night, they are spectacular. There are miles and miles of red lights that blink on them SIMULTANUOUSLY! It is so cool! We could see the lights in the distance as we traveled north and couldn’t imagine what they were and especially since they were synchronized. When we came upon the first ones, we realized that they were the windmills and they went on for miles… It was AWESOME to see.
As we were getting near the border of Kansas, the sun was just coming up:
The weather at this point was good, semi-clear skies and not much wind so we continued on knowing we made the right decision to travel!
In the next few photos, watch how the sky changes:
The wind was picking up here:
The poles look like crosses along the road:
We passed many grainerys and most of the grain was covered up with a type of tarp:
The wind is blowing – check out the trees:
Andy said it wasn’t too bad driving so we kept on going:
More pictures along the way:
The wind has picked up but the skies are clearing. Spring planting has started:
The sky is looking better:
Check out the house on the left and yes, it is a house:
We made it to the Hutchinson Kansas Fairgrounds by noon and set up. I did some cleaning and a trip to Walmart for supplies and Andy took care of some items around the motorhome.
Listening to the news, we are so glad that we left and decided to come here (our intent was to go to Liberal and Dodge City, Kansas). Hutchinson was on the edge of the severe storms – we had some thunderstorms, wind and rain. But the areas we passed thru had more than 4” of rain and tornados – please keep those people in your prayers. Very scary!
We will be here for a few days so stay tuned and enjoy today.
Stats for today:
Miles Traveled: 305 Miles
Routes Traveled:
Texas: Elks Road; US-54
Oklahoma: US-54
Kansas: US-54; SR-61; N. Lorraine St.; E 17th Ave; Main Street; State Fair Road
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