From Liberal, Kansas to Omaha, Nebraska

We made our way from Liberal, Kansas yesterday ... leaving at our usual 8:15 a.m. We drove for hours through pouring rain and watched the temperature drop from 41 degrees to a low of 36 through parts of Kansas and even saw our first snowflakes mixed in with the rain ~ not a welcome sight! Two days prior in El Paso, we were enjoying 80+ temps and clear blue skies! From quite a distance away, Mr. Jones spotted both this beautiful bridge and a train coming southwest ... if we slowed down just a wee tiny bit, we could maybe catch a shot of it crossing this expanse! We actually pulled off the shoulder of the road and I handed the camera off to Mr. Jones for this shot.

Kansas is known as The Sunflower State ... I don' know if you can see that this is a field of sunflowers, but it is! It's difficult to get a good perspective or a clear shot while shoving my camera out the passenger window with rain hitting me in the face, traveling 65+ mph ... but I tried!

And this beautiful crop was everywhere we looked, both in Kansas and all throughout Nebraska. I can't tell you what it is! It was about knee-high, looked exactly like corn does when it's about midway through the season, but topped with this brick-red tassle! Perhaps it's some kind of weird fall corn. I don't know if you can see in this picture, but at the front of the field there is a wire fence that is completely entangled with tumbleweed that had blown across the highway and could go no further ...

We did drive through Dodge City and snapped a couple of pictures there ... oh, my ... we didn't miss much by not staying there overnight the other night. But it was fun to at least drive through this part of town real quick and get some photos ....

We took these pictures while driving on Wyatt Earp Blvd. and passed Doc Holliday's Liquor store on the way out of town ... appropriate!

It was another glorious train day for Mr. Jones. If I posted all of the pictures we took of trains yesterday, you would be cracking up! I think this steam engine was parked in Edwards County, Kansas, at a train museum that was free ... but closed!

We drove a few hours right through the middle of Nebraska. Isn't it beautiful?

Our whole purpose of routing ourselves through Omaha was so that I could get together with my cousin, Suzie, whom I haven't laid eyes on since her dad's funeral 7-8 years ago ... and that was such a sad occasion that we naturally didn't really visit with each other.
I can remember family reunions from years and years ago where Suzie and I sat down together, started talking, and so thoroughly connected and enjoyed each other's company that hours flew by before we came up for breath! Last night was no different. I think we actually talked nonstop for almost seven hours ... just Suzie and I ... reliving family moments, talking about the deep things of the heart, screaming with laughter, answering each other's questions, reconnecting all of the years that have gone by ... and again finding that the love we have for each other is a special and very precious kind of love. I'm so thankful we could do this.

This is an inadequate description of yesterday, but Mr. Jones is standing behind me trying to get me out of this hotel and back on the road! We are heading on up to Minneapolis today to spend some time with our Adam and Emily. Looking forward very much to seeing them ... we should be there by about 6:00 this evening.