Kansas, she said!

In my last blog entry, July 16,  I had mentioned that the next day (yesterday in real time), we would be visiting the Arch, and I would write about it on the 17th. 

Well, yesterday was a perfect storm of everything going wrong, and reminded me of the book by the brilliant Judith  Viorst, “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.”  To start with, when we arrived at the Arch, we had intended to ride up to the top for the great view of the whole metro area, including the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. We arrived at about 11 AM, and the next ride available was 4:45!  No way would we be able to wait that long, since we wanted to be in Denver by tonight, and it is a 12 hour drive.  

So, no ride to the top for us. We did walk around in the museum at the base and saw some educational exhibits about the Louisiana Purchase, which as a history buff I did find very interesting. 

So, after missing the view from the top, we took off from St. Louis hoping to make it at least as far as Topeka, Kansas. But, as luck would have it, we had a Zoom commitment at 5:30, so we could only go as far as the Kansas City eastern suburbs. The hotel we booked at the last minute  through Hotels.com turned out to be a fleabag dump, and our Zoom meeting, which was our synagogue’s annual gala, was very emotional for me. Because  we have so many dear friends in Woodstock whom we will miss terribly, I had to turn off the video so no one would see me sobbing. 

And to top everything off, we went to possibly the worst Mexican restaurant I’ve ever been to, with severely watered down Margaritas, and flavorless fajitas.  So, I needed 24 hours’ perspective to write about my Very Bad Day.

Today, even though we had to drive 9 hours, was a much better day ( it had to be). We drove from the eastern KC suburbs, all the way through Kansas, and halfway across Colorado to Denver.  I found the scenery to be so calming and beautiful-who knew Kansas could elicit those feelings. So different from Vermont or Washington, because you could see all the way to the horizon with no interruptions. 

Kansas horizon

And, count me among those who find modern windmills beautiful, especially when there are a group turning in unison. I did find an ironic twist to seeing a huge “Trump 2024” sign in a field of windmills.  Without making any judgments, I seem to recall him saying that those windmills cause cancer. Just sayin'.

Windmills at work 

Along the way we did stop in Abilene, KS, to check out the Eisenhower Library and his Boyhood Home. It was closed because of covid, but we were able to get some good photos.  Abilene seems to be a town that time forgot.

We arrived in Denver at about 6 local time (I do love turning the clock back!).  It is our first time in downtown Denver, and it seems to be a very vibrant city. Lots of activity on a Sunday night. Many restaurants and pubs. And there must be a lot of people living downtown; right in the neighborhood are a Whole Foods and a CVS.  We are looking forward tomorrow to doing more exploring.

Downtown Denver at 8pm on Sunday

This is a long entry, but it is two days worth!  Hopefully there will be no more Horrible Days.