Mile 9174

I'm leaving Dodge City, KS this morning before Miss Kitty and her Can-Can girls are awake, before Wyatt Earp had his first coffee, and the gunslinger have brewed up their heists for the day.  I follow US-50 to Kinsley, KS which is equidistant from New York, NY and San Francisco, CA, 1,561 miles to either city.  

 my windshield from last evening ride (2 hrs only)

Here I leave the Arkansas River for awhile to cross it again in Hutchinson, KS, home to the world's largest grain/corn elevator.  This unit is 2,717 ft (828 mtr) long, and 100 ft (30.5 mtr) wide, and holds more than 17 million bushels (6 million hecto liter)  of grain. It is estimated that this is enough to supply the flour for all the bread consumed in the USA for six weeks.   The rest of my day is pretty much dominated by endless corn fields, and we all know how those look like.  Just for the statistic freaks, about 91.7 million acres are used for the production of corn feed, resulting in about 14 billion bushels of corn or 896 billion pounds of corn.  

Corn or grain silos are dominating the landscape around Hutchinson, KS and all along my way, sometimes asking myself if the town was built for the silos, or the silos made the town being built.  I follow US-50 and fight my way through Kansas City, and after a little detour because of my misreading of road signs I continue through Warrensburg, MO to Jefferson City, MO, the starting point of the Santa Fee Trail.  Once again do I meet here as well again Lewis and Clark, as part of their trail has crossed this territory as well.  And that's how the circle closes.

I'm still undecided how to continue as I enter now many metropolitan areas with high traffic which is not to my likings.  On the other hand I have to avoid dropping too much South not to come into the rain and bad weather pattern hurricane Ian is bringing upon the South of the US.  Figure if I stay North of the Appalachian Mountains I will be fine.  Alternatively I can always cross cut and pick up one of the Interstates and make my run home.  I will decide in the morning.

"You don't stop planting corn because weeds are going to grow beside it."  -  Matshona Dhliwayo - Zimbabwe born, Canadian based Philosopher