Windmills, Livestock, Mountains and weed

Oh my goodness!! It was an EXCITING day today and to be honest I'm exhausted! BUT I can't go to sleep without writing about today's adventures to share them (and the pictures I did NOT delete today!) Besides, the thought of writing TWO posts in one day, with as much as we are seeing....NO WAY!!

A quick little aside...I found the pictures I thought I lost yesterday. At some point I'll post them on here, but for right now, I think I only have the energy to share TODAY'S excitement!!

Okay...here we go!
We left Junction City KS today and ended up in Fort Collins CO. That's 530 miles we covered!! Whooo hooo!! The first exciting thing was this...

 Those of you who know me know that I typically like to haul ass on the freeway (blame my WI dad for that LOL) so the posted speed limit being 75mph is awesome. Of course it would have been more awesome if I could have been driving my Firebird *big sigh* but she's gone to the car heaven in the sky...at least my Jeep slows me down a little and keeps me from going to jail! Speaking of my Jeep(s) right around this speed limit sign there was an exit sign for...JEEP RD!! I told Jamie that was it, we were moving!! LOL

In KS they have windmills just like we did in IN...except MORE of them

This doesn't even begin to show you how many there were!

I do have to say, while in KS this is not something I expected to
see....

 I never expected to see rolling hills and this kind of landscape at all. I did hear that they have gotten a bunch of rain and have had some problems with flooding in some areas.











Of course seeing livestock...

 was no surprise. We kept looking for a Buffalo Burger, but we still haven't found one...maybe tomorrow in WY.

I also had no idea that they drilled for oil in KS...see, you learn all kinds of things when you drive across the country!

I would really like to get up close to one of these...I think the whole process is pretty cool and that it's under our feet is even cooler!

We did have a little scare right before Hays KS...it looked like we had bearings going bad on our trailer. We pulled over, Jamie packed them with some more grease and went up to the next city and looked around to see what we could do to get some bearings so that if they did indeed go bad while we were actually on the road, he would have everything he needed to fix it right then and there. While we were doing that we stopped at Xibit Customs and how amazing that place is!! Reminded me somewhat of Max Merritt where Jamie worked in Franklin IN. Anyway, they had two '69 Camaros in the shop that they were doing frame up restorations on . If you want specific details, you'll have to talk to Jamie...I was just drooling and I think my eyes glazed over LOL.

Something else that we noticed in KS was that the State Patrol was SUPER nice. When we pulled over on the side of the freeway to check the bearings (before we pulled off at an exit) a State Trooper was there right away and asking what he could do to help. He offered to follow us so we could drive slow until we got to the exit. Jamie said thanks, but it isn't necessary, but how nice was that?! Then, when we got back on the freeway, there was a State Trooper changing a lady's tire while she watched holding a toddler in her arms!!

I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of this, but there were lots of billboards in KS for quilt and yarn shops. More than I've seen anywhere else so far!

Did you know that Oakley KS is the birthplace of the legend Annie Oakley!

And for all you Waukesha WI peeps...there is a Taco Johns in Colby KS!

The clouds were really cool too...

They looked like you could just reach out and touch them and the "bottoms" were so flat, almost like they were sitting on something (immediately though about the show "Under the Dome.")

When we first crossed into CO it looked just like KS, but slowly but surely the landscape changed and at one point we were looking at a mountain top that was about 150 miles away that was 11,000 feet high! Now that was impressive! I couldn't get a decent picture because it was so far away and so faint, nothing really showed up in a picture. But it was almost breath taking!

CO has windmills too...

this picture doesn't really do justice to what I was trying to show...literally there were windmills as far as the eye could see. They looked like they went on forever! We even saw semis moving the blades for them...One semi could only haul one of the three blades at a time!! These things are monsters!!


We also so a heard of antelope! By the time I saw them we were going right past them and there was no way to get a decent picture. But it was cool to see them, as I've never seen one except at the zoo.  The other thing I saw that was a whole new thing for me were "road gates" to force people to get off the freeway due to weather conditions. Jamie said that once we get a little further in to CO I'll see some huge snow fences...nothing like we have in WI, but HUGE. Hopefully I can pictures of those!

Lastly, I have sunset pics, with the sun setting over the Rockies...so very beautiful!

And once again I was surprised by

drilling for oil in CO! Finally got a good shot of one of these too :)

It was a fantastic drive and while some people think KS is a boring state to drive through I thought it was fascinating to see the landscape go from rolling hills, to completely flat plains (no trees looked so weird to me) and then back to rolling hills once we were in CO.

I have to say thank you to Jamie because I don't think I would have ever taken this trip if it weren't for him. I would have flown out to Seattle and had to have had Bodhi run me around while I was there visiting. But this driving across the country is awesome!!

And if you're wondering the meaning of the title to this post...I believe the first three words are self explanatory, and the "weed" is because in CO marijuana is legal for recreational use. I will admit, we're thinking of walking across the street from our motel tomorrow morning and checking out the "dispensary"...I'm curious what it's like and to be honest, am wondering what they edibles are like! LOL!!

That's all for tonight. I'm exhausted and ready for some hard core sleep!! Keep following us along our journey and PLEASE leave comments to let me know what you think. I'm trying to take pictures of anything I find interesting and tell you the stories of the travels! Hope you're enjoying it!!

Keep rolling and enjoy the journey!
LeighAnn & Jamie