Home on the Range

Home on the Range, or My Western Home to give its original title, is the state song of Kansas and is perfect for the great journey today through the state from Wichita to Lebanon on the northern edge of the state where it meets Nebraska.

Indeed the original poem has this line:

Oh! give me a gale of the Solomon vale, where the life streams with buoyancy flow. (See full lyrics)

and we travelled through the Solomon Valley on highway 24 this morning.

We started this morning with me competing a blog post about last night's meal and then after shaving and showering we headed down to breakfast. This is the first Quality Inn at which we have stayed this holiday. The room was excellent, but the breakfast is not as good as those we have experienced in the sister hotels, Comfort Inns. It had biscuits and country gravy, fruit and a waffle machine. So for the first time this holiday I made a waffle. They provide pre-mixed batter and you add it to the waffle iron, which has a timer. As you can see from the photo it turned out OK. 

We left the hotel at 7.55 am heading north for most of the day. This is our route:

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As you will see it is not a direct route, as today we planned our route to visit the geographical centre of the continental United States. So on this trip when I get to compete visits to the 6 states I had previously missed of the 48 states I also get to visit the monument at its central geographical point. 


I had no idea there was such a monument until after we had planned the trip. One weekend listening to catch-up radio while clearing some e-mails, my usual weekend excitement, I heard a Radio Four programme called Follow the Money, a book reading in which "Steve Boggan decides ... to spend 30 days following the same ten dollar bill across America." In the first episode he mentioned Lebanon, Kansas as the centre of the 48 states. I googled the information and found out there was a monument there. Which is why this trip brought us from Arkansas via Oklahoma and Kansas and not via Missouri which was the alternative. (This route had the additional benefit of giving Drew two states new to him.) 

It was a lovely feeling to be at the monument and think that in a few days time I will have visited every one of these 48 states of which this is the midpoint. It is nice when one is touched by a spontaneous feeling of joy and pleasure and that is exactly what I felt here.

After our visit we drove into Lebanon, but there was nothing open so we drove on and soon reached the Nebraska state line. Just over the state line we came to the Willa Cather Memorial Prairie, I didn't know people could have a memorial prairie, but the area of 608 is being kept a prairie land as more and more of the prairie is cultivated. Drew liked this area, as the 18 photos on flickr testify. 

It turns out that Willa Cather was of Welsh descent and lived in this area before become famous as an author.

Soon after leaving the memorial prairie the thunderstorm that has been stalking us since last Thursday in Atlanta reappeared. Drew took some great photos of the darkening sky. As we came into Willa Cather's town of Red Cloud so the rain, lightning and thunder became intense. I was hoping we would find a nice 'Ma and Pa' restaurant for lunch in Red Cloud, but the only place open was a Subway. I guess this reflects the declining rural population and economy in places like this. Twenty years ago there was a small, locally run, eating place in even the smallest towns. 

Due to the rain the Subway was full with all the locals, many who had come into town not expecting the downpour. I had a 6" sub with Meatball Marinara on wheat with pepper jack, onions, jalapeños and pickles. Drew had a Turkey sub. 

The rain eased off and we left town. It is interesting to note that Red Cloud the town is named for Red Cloud the Indian chief of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) people, who led his people from their traditional territory to a reservation here. He and many of his people became Catholic.

From Red Cloud we travelled along Highway 74 and along Highway 6, avoiding the interstate and getting to see small town Nebraska (though even towns of little more than 200 people are called cities here!) including Hastings, Sutton, Exeter and the quaintly named Friend. 

We arrived at the Comfort Inn in Lincoln, Nebraska at 3.15 pm