Halstead, Kansas To John Martin State Park, Colorado
- Lucian@going2paris.net
- Sep 30, 2020
- 2 min read
Hasty, Colorado
September 30, 2020
Another day of logging about 300 miles. I’ve driven 1,750 miles since leaving on Friday.
Fun seeing Kansas from Route 50. Definitely a “working” road with lots of semis. Today they were moving grain and chemicals - the last hundred miles in Kansas they were living cattle consist with the change in land use. Once I entered “livestock country” I stopped having a windshield full of dead bugs. Makes sense in hindsight - bugs and crops.
in the past couple of days I have noticed a lot of flies. The annoying kind that circle around me. Maybe it’s the warm weather? It’s 530 pm at John Martin Lake and it’s 79 degrees. Low tonight is forecasted to be 45 degrees. Perfect for sleeping. It was 50 degrees last night. I need to prepare for the cold of Steamboat Springs.
So far, so good. B+ on diet, B- on exercise. Stretched my hamstrings today; not pleased by the lack of range of motion.
Enjoy the photos and videos. Among the highlights:
Mackville named for my nephew
Wind farms that went on for 10 miles in Kansas. It was blowing at a constant 15 mph (my guess).
Dodge City - I was disappointed. I was sure as I left the city there would be a sign “You are getting the hell out of Dodge.” Bummed.
They have lacrosse in Kansas.
Colorado’s welcome signs still need some color.
Casinos. I don’t get it.
Route 50 in Kansas is flat and straight. Not many towns on it. It must be a lonely life as a farmer’s family.
Where does the water come from to irrigate tge crops.
Farmers - you don’t control the weather or the price of your product. I assume they buy insurance and hedges. But those just eat away at their profits. 🤔
I have only been in Colorado maybe 60 miles. But I’ve noticed a change in the landscape. Getting hilly, rocky and dusty.
Where does the water come from?
The Ogallala Aquifer (oh-guh-LAH-luh) is a shallow water table aquifer surrounded by sand, silt, clay, and gravel located beneath the Great Plains in the United States. One of the world's largest aquifers, it underlies an area of approximately 174,000 sq mi (450,000 km2) in portions of eight states (South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas). It was named in 1898 by geologist N. H. Darton from its type locality near the town of Ogallala, Nebraska. T he aquifer is part of the High Plains Aquifer System, and rests on the Ogallala Formation, which is the principal geologic unit underlying 80% of the High Plains.
Large scale extraction for agricultural purposes started after World…