Day 3: 6/4/24
From: St. Louis, MO
To: Cedar Bluff State Park, KS
Distance: 561 miles

New rule: Don’t book an interior room that overlooks the gym. You *will* be woken up by weightlifters with every rep they finish…at 5 am.

thunk * thunk * thunk

Anyway, guess I’m up early. I’m ready to hit the road by 7 am. If only the kids were awake.

We nab a quick hotel breakfast before getting on the road, knowing the drive today will be a slog as we are pretty much on I-70 for 500+ miles through all of Missouri and most of Kansas.

The weather stays mostly pleasant, though thunderstorms threaten on the horizon for much of our drive through Kansas, which makes for dramatic sky photos, at least. Husband is a trooper, still acting as the sole driver even after 3 days, despite my offers to relieve him. 

Children have reacted to Missouri and Kansas with the expected observations. “There is nothing here!” And “Why would people want to live here?” They agreed it all made more sense when you take into account the fact that the farming here is really good, so farmers want to live here, despite the constant threat of rain, tornadoes, and snowstorms.

On that, why don’t we read more about the European settlers’ reactions to seeing tornadoes for the first time? Can you imagine what the first European thought upon seeing one? How were they not terrified out their minds? How did they not turn around and run straight back to the east coast? Anyway. Welcome to my random thoughts as we travel the state of Kansas.

About an hour from our destination, we’re all starting to feel a little loopy. A quick bathroom break leads to a conversation with someone driving eastbound who inquires about the weather. He’s worried about the possibility of hail damage on his pretty orange Dodge Challenger.

I can’t blame him. We thought we’d hit the storm since so many pockets of rain kept forming south of I-70 and drifting northeast, but miraculously, the storm separated around us and we haven’t hit rain since leaving St. Louis.

“Most exciting thing in Kansas so far,” says Older Child about a long train loaded down with coal that traveled beside the highway. They’re not wrong.

The land has become so flat that even the billboards are at ground level because they don’t need to be elevated to be seen. But the oil pumps are staggered across the ground now and we all agree they look a bit like terrifying, angry iron horses.

Another two hours and we finally arrive at Cedar Bluff State Park in Middle-of-Nowhere Kansas. And oh, the sounds of Western meadowlarks, American goldfinch, Orchard orioles, and Northern bobwhites! That subtle hush of the wind across the plains! I’m in love. Again.

The evening brings a long slow sunset from the porch of our cabin for me and Younger Child while Husband and Older Child go to the nearby pond. After finding a discarded lure and some trashed fishing line, they make their own rod with a stick. Did they catch a fish? Of course. A bass. Because Husband can fish anywhere with anything. Including junk.

They also come back with this guy, who happened to be crossing the road as they were driving back. Since they didn’t want him to get smushed, they bring him to the cabin and release him into the meadow. Not long after, Husband catches sight of a whitetail deer dashing through the high grass. By this point, I’m fairly convinced the meadow is pure magic.

We enjoy the evening from the porch, eagerly awaiting the appearance of the first stars. A little stargazing and then we’ll call it a day. But wait, what’s that we hear? Coyotes! A pack howling and yipping somewhere in the distance. How exciting! What a way to end the day. 

Tomorrow? We’ll bid farewell to the plains and head for the mountains and the trees.