We made it quite a bit further than we had thought. Driving from Jim’s to Kansas City was on two, three, and sometimes four lane roads with stoplights and small towns to go through. When we were established on I-70 I did a quick calculation to find that we had averaged 56 miles per hour. A few hours later I checked again and we were averaging 61 miles per hour. We also gained an hour back when we crossed into Mountain Daylight Time around mile marker 36 in Kansas. We’re now in a very nice KOA campground near Denver. There is free wifi here and we’re both sitting at the table with computers open and busy. I’m writing in my blog, Nina is sending out some e-mail. It’s quarter past eight and we’ll figure out something to eat from the fridge/freezer in a few minutes. This has been our longest driving day of the trip.

And what a driving day it was. Shortly past Topeka the winds picked up from the south. Big, gusty winds that blew trucks and motorhomes around on the freeway. That made for active driving so we changed drivers more often so we wouldn’t be so tired. After a sketchy night’s sleep last night and a hard driving day today, we’ll both crash tonight. But — we’re in a good campground. The air conditioning is on. We’ve got hot water. It’s quiet. We’re not bouncing all over the freeway….

Nina asked me what were some of the memorable sights from the trip. My answer was “trees.” Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and across Kentucky literally all we could see from the roadway were trees. As we’ve come west today we went from trees everywhere to trees nowhere. We left rolling hills with lush greenery in Missouri to dry high plains in Colorado. The contrast is pretty stark. Tomorrow we’ll be in Soda Springs. Hurrah!