As the travel budget continues to shrink, it begins to look less likely that yours truly will ever get to all the counties in the US. However, for now I will continue to try using most of my vacation time for going to places I have never been before. As of early August, 1999, the biggest uncolored blocks of space on my county tracking map were:
After much checking and negotiations, it turned out another county-counter needed many in the 5th area as well, and (unlike many of the boneheads who claim to be county hunters but for some unknown reason "forget" to reply when I ask about a coordinated trip?!?) he was interested in a shared venture. After many e-mails, we came up with a plan involving meeting at the Kansas City airport. I wound up out there about 21 hours early, something I'd originally planned to fill in some holes in Missouri, but I later decided would be more efficiently used for getting as many Kansas counties I could get that George did not need.
My flight left O'Hare just past 10 Wednesday night, so by the
time I landed at MCI and got the rental car, it was a bit past
midnight. Since it was already so late anyway, I had given
thought to pulling an all night drive to maximize county
coverage. However, circumstances and/or stupidity meant I
had a big sleep deficit from the past week. I did have a
big batch of tape-letters to respond to, which I have found is a
great help in staying awake day or night, but those are harder to
answer when it's dark in the car. The final decision was
made when watching a line of serious thunderstorms to the north
of I-70, up in an area I needed to drive through...instead, I
grabbed the last vacancy at the Motel 6 in Manhattan, round about
3 am.
For radio, this was a good choice, as most of the Topeka stations
could be heard there, plus of course Manhattan. Got all the
stations I knew to get except KKSU, the Kansas State U. ag
station that shares 580 kHz with WIBW in Topeka. Turns out
KKSU is only on weekday afternoons, so again I was fated to miss
it. The student-oriented station on 91.9 was on and
rocking, but it sounded automated?
The motel was convenient to a WalMart, which came in handy for
stocking a few provisions...extra batteries, more socks (had been
short on light-colored ones to wear with shorts), and a bag of
generic tortilla chips (which I did not need...hot weather meant
lots of liquids but almost no snacking, and despite all the flat
miles there was little need for boredom relief either!).
From there, north to more counties.
Prior to the tour, I had bought a Kansas Atlas and made a mess of
two AAA maps picking out the best routes for the adventure.
Was maybe 15 minutes into Thursday's drive when it became obvious
some of the "short-cuts" I'd marked were not going to
work, as some roads which appear to be paved, if not major, would
be gravel and/or poorly signed. In retrospect, this also
made my decision to wait for daylight look even better.
Go-go-go...my first stop would not be until Clay Center, and that
was only because the post office was visible on the main
street. One talk-tape package to the Masked Bandit and a
set of 22¢ stamps for mailing the other packages later later, I
buzzed on south. Spotted an combo gas station and A&W
near I-70, but before feeding myself and the car, I stayed on
US-77 long enough to nick Morris county.
The A&W pointed out another problem me and we would encounter
too often in Kansas...broken or closed public restrooms. At
least in this instance relief was close at hand, as there was a
rest area not far west on I-70. A related goodnews/badnews
for the day, I would guzzle many quarts of water, iced tea and
Diet Pepsi on what would be my first official 100º day of the
year without needing more than the average number of bathroom
breaks...but I would have to change my "pocket T" twice
because of excessive sweat, blech!
Somewhere in McPherson county, while spinning the radio dial I
encountered a rare creature, the "ez listening
station". KOEZ, the 92.9 out of Newton KS, provided a
fair amount of the afternoon talktape reply background
music. Funny to think how I sneered at that type of station
back in the 1970s, when many of the few top-rated FMs in most big
markets were "beautiful". My main beef was, why
play remakes of songs which were low-key to begin with,
especially when the original was best known as an instrumental
anyway? The ez stations I stumble upon these days are a bit
better about playing original tunes, and anyway such stations are
enough of a novelty to be interesting...even big top-40 fan
George did not mind having KOEZ on when we were in the southern
fringes of their signal area the next afternoon.
Kansas problem #3...the "convoy" method of handling
traffic through construction zones. I usually don't do much
research into construction zones for trips, but if anyone knows
of any other states which make long lines of cars and trucks wait
to be led through with "pilot cars", please lemme know
for planning future trips. Even after cutting out the
southwesternmost of the counties I was looking to catch on the
solo Thursday drive, icky zones on US-56 and then US-50 were
making me very worried about getting back to the airport
on-time. As it was, I only just made it to the Furr's
Cafeteria in Lawrence in time for a trip through the food line
before closing (horrendous light timing on northbound US-59 being
no help either). Also limited the time I had to phone a
Lawrence resident (and APA Centauri member), just as well
though as the phone in the Furr's lobby was near a heavy wooden
door (BAM!) used by many a loud customer (YAP! YAP!). Did
indeed make it to MCI in time, whew.
George's flights were trickier than mine, as they involved a
short connection in Pittsburgh (no bonus points for guessing the
airline, ha!). He had 3 bags' worth of luggage, but crammed
most of it into the two carry-ons in case the suitcase did not
make get transferred in time. The suitcase made it, but
with delays it had even less transfer time than what little the
schedule had allowed.
From what we both noticed with luggage in KC, it's good there it
is not a major "hub" airport as the checked baggage
takes a long time despite the very short distance between planes
and the claim area! In theory, MCI is an efficient airport,
with amazingly short distances between the outside doors and the
gates, and between the gates and the baggage claims. The
three terminals are each nearly-round, narrow, single-level
rings. Unlike most major airports, arriving and departing
passengers use the same doors for entrance and exit. I can
see problems when there are a lot of flights coming in and going
out at once, but again not being the "hub" for a major
airline, there is less risk for such clumps of flights.
Instead of large concourses, the gates are on the outsides of the
same terminal rings, with no more than two gates per security
checkpoint. This can suck when the plane is to be large or
otherwise crowded, each gate is its own enclosed area.
By the time George was set, his dinner options were limited...we
circled around the first major commercial zone south of MCI, but
too many spots were either closed, down to drive-thru only, or
pseudo-upscale sit-down. Thus, the only McDump's stop on
the tour...one with serious quality, efficiency and cleanliness
"issues"...on all counts, it made the El Sucko McDoof's
next to the Beau Drive complex look more like The Pump Room.
I had lobbied for Thursday night to be an all-night drive,
especially after I had to miss some of the counties I'd wanted
that day, but I was still tired, George was already doing little
better, and there was the possibility of nasty storms on or near
our intended route that night as well. George had been
listening to southwest Missouri stations on his flight, and they
were crowing about serious problems down that way.
Indeed...the lightning flashes were already visible right after
we were south of the Kansas City light pollution zone, and many a
lightning bolt was seen once we got past Nevada, MO. Was
surprised when we were still not actually in the mess when I got
us to the Super 8 parking lot at Pittsburg KS! I had
considered trying to limp on to Joplin MO, as their motel prices
were less disgusting (40s instead of 50s!?!), but Joplin was out
of our way, it was already late, and they still had the storm
action.
Made up for some of the extra cost by pigging out on their
continental breakfast (which continent, am not sure, ha).
We also got in stops at the two clusters of local radio stations
(darn, the cow was gone from the front of KKOW!), took advantage
of one of Kansas' few AAA offices (remind me to grumble about the
consolidation going on at Chicago Motor Club sometime
soon...while they still have any offices!), and there was a Sonic
drive-in. George loves their grape slushes! I get
into their territory too infrequently to have a definite
favorite, though I could be persuaded to make the Diet Limeade a
regular habit.
[Update note,
4/17/01...I now live just 3½ miles from the only southern
California Sonic, Lemon Ave. north of the 91 Freeway in Anaheim.
They don't have a diet Limeade, so I make do with the Limeade, or
the Strawberry Limeade. A 44-ouncer and a grilled cheese sandwich
is a good lunch on a hot, dry day!]
Was already Friday afternoon before we got to any needed counties...both George and me needed bunches across the two southernmost tiers of Kansas, though few of our neededs would be coincidental Friday. George would also need 4 counties on the Oklahoma side of the border, not too far out of the way. The routes were amazingly straight-forward, with the only missed turn being of all things the rest area on the short stretch of I-35 we had deliberately taken only to get Kansas maps there! Road-numbness was with both of us in this case...from the look and the signs, I thought it was only a truck weigh station, only looking like a familiar stop (from the 11/95 Oklahoma trip) after I'd passed the exit, and George didn't notice it at all until I told him we passed it. George would've gone back, or even pulled some insane U-turn to get back, but I guessed (correctly, as it turned out) we would have another map opportunity later in the trip, and besides we did not NEED the maps except for trading purposes.
After I-35, the populated areas are smaller, farther apart, and
can be spotted from a great distance by the white grain elevator
"skyscrapers" against the blue sky. One of the
last towns big enough for a dinner selection would be Alva OK,
where George voted for the familiar (Pizza Hut) over the local
American, Italian and Mexican establishments. He chose a
small pizza, but I figured the baked pasta dishes would be less
bland/boring. While nothing to give jump-up-and-down raves
to, especially with the mystery-meat pizza sausage-ish topping, I
seemed to guess correctly.
Except for the few river valleys, southwest Kansas is miles and
miles of nothing but miles and miles. Especially under
cover of darkness. A lot of the miles between Meade and
Johnson City duplicated the Kansas portion of my 1/95 Oklahoma
tour, though that first time through was during early
afternoon. Anyway, thanks to straight roads and little
traffic, I was able to cover lots of ground while George snoozed.
MarkTime readers from the
mid-1990s may vaguely remember my account of the two 1995
Oklahoma trips. One strange aspect from the January tour
popped up again on a couple of the roads in southwest
Kansas. Along US-160 west of Ulysses (seat of Grant county,
natch!), and again heading north on K-27, there were several
formations of strobe lights...some were parallel to the road I
was on, but about a ½-mile off, other sets were perpendicular to
the road, and others were (from my perspective anyway) in no
recognizable pattern. The lights were spread about ¼-mile
or more apart, and at or just above eye-level to drivers.
Have still not found out what the Texas panhandle strobe-circles
were for, either, but I'm sure a few of the Art Bell fans in the
MarkTime audience will have some theories?
Sorta half-watched for potential motels in the few towns along
the route, but we had lots of ground to cover, it was a rare cool
night for better car-napping, and of course most ma&pa motels
don't stay open very late without advance permission. This
is much less of a problem with my preferred style of traveling
(get in 10 or 11pm, hit the road as close to sunrise as I can
manage unless heavy radio taping kept me up late) than with
George's (drive until you can't stay awake any longer, or 4am
whichever comes first, ha), but even 11pm is too late for some
independent motels anymore! I was in better shape this
night, even with few local radio stations to keep me awake as I
kept going all the was to Scott City, with just a short nap east
of Tribune.
Oh yeah, for the last several long-drive trips especially, I have
tried my best to familiarize myself as much as possible with the
territory I would be covering. Some fascinating history in
Kansas, when one bothers to study! Was thus not surprised
to encounter Tribune as the only sizable town in Greeley county,
and its only "suburb" was named Horace.
Speaking of history, by amazing coincidence I received e-mail from a Dick D Strickert a few days prior to the trip:
I have never put much effort into genealogy regarding either side of my family, simply for lack of known older relatives (if there are any on either mom's or dad's side, they would not be close in any sense) or information on ancestors. Mom and dad had only talked about most of their relatives in passing, rarely in good terms, and both they and their parents have gone from their personal hells-on-earth to wherever/whatever. What little scraps of information which led me to knowledge of my link to Johann came to me years ago from some long-since-forgotten distant cousin I was not able to find later. I don't know what my connection might be, and I am curious myself where in (then-not-yet) Germany Johann came from. My vague recollection was that he had moved to somewhere around Brantford, Ontario in 1840 or thereabouts, but until know I was not aware he did wind up in the US. I was thinking my portion of the Strickert clan was in Chicago by 1900, but when, how, why, etc. is still a mystery.
Also speaking of history, or various interpretations of such...a
big news item across Kansas that weekend involved some ruling
(unclear on the details) that state schools were not required to
teach evolution. Devo Devo!
We hit Scott City about 4am Saturday. I turned left on
US-83, explored up to about the city limit, then down to the
south end (after a stop at the open-lobby post office to mail,
yes, another tape-letter package!) and down some westbound
side-street until the paving ended where it appeared to enter
farm country on both sides. Looked like a good place to nap
for a couple hours, so I did so, or at least as best I could
despite my trouble sleeping in a car seat.
I popped awake at the first hint of sunlight, even with my
deliberately parking pointed west...I think the strange itching
sensations on my legs helped? We would have to park near
what I'm guessing is the largest concentration of mosquitoes in
semi-arid western Kansas? As more daylight appeared, but
before official sunrise, it became obvious that the place on my
left fit the description Dick gave for the county cemetery!
Only thing that threw me was, there are LOTS of flagpoles
there...seems to be a common thing in rural Kansas
cemeteries. I did eventually find an odd flagpole (more
along the lines of a short self-supporting radio tower) off to
the side in an older section. Over there I would indeed
find a number of old Strickert tombstones, many in German
even. I hope the photos turned out...many of them were on
the wrong side of the not-quite-risen sun. Alas, both for MarkTime and for APA Centauri, these zines will more'n
likely have to go out before I get the pictures back.
[Update,
4/17/01 - I may have some photos posted elsewhere on the
Website...check the main Travel page for link
if/when I do get them up here.]
By then George was sorta-awake, and wanted to hit a restroom to
change and freshen up. Still too early for anything we
passed in Scott City, so I drove on east...though started to nod
off about 50 miles along. George took over and looked
forward to the next sizable town, Ness City. He picked out
the biggest of the three gas stations, but it turned out their
restrooms were closed. Little better luck with the other
two, or with a motel restaurant...closed, or no paper, or
otherwise not to his liking. One of those times when you do
not want to be in a car he's driving, but somehow we left town
without an accident. We wound up at the westernmost gas
station/convenience store of Great Bend, where it was apparent
other folks had "held it" to then...the men's bathroom
was busier than the women's room!
To me, an even bigger surprise was the lack of odd-ball soda pops
in the stores. Usually on these trips, even if there are no
local brands (so rare anymore), one at least encounters an
unusual flavor put out by a major brand. I did run into one
place with Fresca...why is this such a rare treat in the
US? Saw more stores with it in one Toronto afternoon than
in all US stores combined up to this point in 1999. A few
stores had "Citra", Coca Cola's rip-off of Squirt,
first seen by this reporter in Rutland VT this spring but not yet
tried, and one had Pepsi's answer to "Sprite" on tap,
though unlike in Milwaukee, this one claimed to be
caffeine-free? Kansas stores did much better with
local-brand potato chips, and with wacky local/regional candies
like "Cherry Mash".
After a wee-bit of zigging & zagging, we were on westbound
I-70 for a good stretch. There were a couple Czech
restaurants in Wilson (a fine Bohemian name, ha!) I was curious
about, but the lunch stop would wait until the chain-strip on
US-183 at Hays. A few miles east of town, the local KFC
(Kansas Fried Cow? Naw...) advertised their buffet.
The only time I have KFC food in the Chicago area is when sister
Betsy buys us lunch, and only a few barely-seen area locations
have the buffet (this was only the 3rd I ever did, after
Moberly MO and Augusta ME), so this actually was rare for me
as chains go. The Hays KFC is two-story, much like the one
at 6th & Geary I'd force myself into during the most budget
conscious San Francisco days. Food quality was OK for a
KFC, though the dining experience suffered some from the locust
swarms of families there.
[Update 4/17/01
- I have since seen 3 other KFC buffets...one in the retirement
community of Hemet CA, south of Riverside, pretty good so almost
makes up for the Furr's that closed down near there a couple
years ago; one part-time buffet off the 91 Freeway on the far
east side of Yorba Linda CA, very sucky in both selection and in
quality; Can't remember the 3rd one.]
On the way out of Hays, we stopped at the Fort Hays State
Historic Site, where the reception area featured a small museum
collection, and two racks of maps and tourist pamphlets.
Then it was Westward Ho! until back out to K-27, and north to
US-36. Out that away, most of the agriculture, when there
is any, is a mix of sunflowers, corn, and open plowed fields I
would guess to have winter wheat if anything, and lots of large
cattle ranches. I realized I've rarely (if ever?) seen any
wheat fields, or what I would recognize as such. In rural
areas nearest Chicago, it's corn, soybeans, pigs and dairy
cows. In southeastern Kansas, I saw what I'm guessing is
sorghum, what appears to be clusters of tiny brown pods at the
top of corn-like stalks? What stands out most to me, most
of the stalks are of uniform height, except for scatterlings
exactly 6 inches taller.
Saturday dinner stop was at Norton...just outside of town there
was a billboard for the "State Street Steakhouse", with
a salad bar, on the south main drag (well, main when US-283 south
of town is not closed completely by construction). A very
good place, though it seems to cater mostly to locals, or other
folks who don't have 185 or more miles to cover yet that
evening. The service is, to put it tactfully, casual...it's
actually a great place to spend the evening yapping with friends
and family, without frequent interruptions, but I don't recommend
it for eat-n-run types.
In planning the routing for this trip, I made a point to set it
up so that the 105th Kansas county was the same for both of
us. Not knowing when we would reach this point, thus having
no idea how much time we would have for anything in Nebraska
before we had to return to Kansas City, I based the routing on
making Republic our last county. As Saturday became
Saturnight, this meant some study of lodging listings that would
be on our way to, but not yet in the final county (it's a rare
thing for the "last one" photo-op to be in daylight,
ha!). The logical overnight place was Concordia, on US-81
about 10 miles south of the last county line. Anything
anywhere near reasonably priced would be a non-chain
establishment, so we called ahead to make sure they would still
be open for us. George guessed we were 2 hours away at
Phillipsburg...in retrospect, with 120+ miles, all in the dark
with 3 side-road detours for other counties between there and
there, 2 hours was just a wee bit optimistic. Heck, the
2:45 it wound up taking me was better that I would've expected,
but the clerk still had a friendly greeting when we arrived.
I forget the motel name right now (Crest-Vue?) is one of those
all-too-rare-anymore unique motels...this one is like a string of
attached but individual cottages, as each room was on a 45-degree
angle in relation to the main driveway. Concordia radio
reception is good, at least on a car radio or excellent home
receiver, being on the fringes of the major AMs and FMs from
Salina-Abilene, Manhattan-Junction City, Grand Island-Hastings,
Lincoln, and maybe others. For basic taping machines,
however, one is more limited...did get a polka show from the 750
in Grand Island, and whatever 550/Salina and 580/Topeka used to
fill their late-night and early Sunday, but otherwise it was
local action. That's OK, the 1190 and 105.5 out of Beloit
were both interesting. Odd part is, both stations gave dual
IDs, but each were doing their own thing...rock and country
hit-AC on the AM, and ez listening(!!!) on the FM side!
Either one would be fine by me.
This was my only full-night sleep on the trip.
Unfortunately, being a late arrival, us getting so much shut-eye
meant a late departure Sunday morning. I don't remember the
exact time, but the finishing-Kansas "ceremony" was
well past 11am? Only then did we plot the next moves.
It was hoped we would get to Lincoln NE in time to get into the
state capitol tower, but that closes at 4pm Sundays...after
having to double-back to pick up a trio of Nebraska counties I
needed west of US-81, and a lunch break at a rare Central Time
Zone "Arctic Circle" in Beatrice, a 4 o'clock arrival
was pushing it. We made the most of it by routing the drive
via Lebanon KS, where about a mile northwest of town lies the
geographic center of the "48 contiguous US
states". At the end of a short state highway, there is
a marker/flagpole (no flag), a 4-seat mini-chapel, and a closed
motel...all centrally located, yet a long way from nowhere.
Lincoln is one of those cities I have passed through often on
trips, but rarely actually visited (ala Louisville, Utica,
Harrisburg and Salt Lake City). In this case, twice on
Amtrak (both times eastbound), at least twice on Greyhound
(always westbound), and once each way on a church field trip
to/from a Lutheran home in Axtell NE long, long ago. We got
into town about 5pm. It felt only vaguely like a government
town (and that much mostly from the insurance offices near the
Capitol), and very little like a college town (did we miss the
right areas? Only saw the stadium, which looked like any
city's downtown football house-of-worship, only redder, ha).
With the late-lunch stop, fortified by big drinks from a Sonic in
the Lincoln area, dinner was very late fast-food in Saint Joseph
MO. Overnight was another expensive Super 8, near the
Kansas City airport...despite being Sunday night, the Motel 6 was
booked up. I would find out the next morning that the VFW
was having its convention in town that week. Adding to the
mix would be an appearance by President Clinton. Not sure
how much of either affected lodging, especially this far out of
downtown, but Clinton's part of the festivities would affect our
drive on Monday morning...the motels were just off I-29, but they
would not let us ON, KC-bound anyway. We got on I-29
southbound to see about the hub-bub, bub...I suspect my photo of
the motorcade will be a blur at best.
The area around the Super 8 was a good place for FM reception,
thanks to lack of nearby tower and signal interference,
though my tape of little ole community oriented KKFI (with one of
the better of the too-many Elvis death tributes heard this
weekend...wouldn't birthday specials be a bit less
ghoulish?!?!?) was getting chewed on by some other station.
AM signals were a problem out there, being too far from too many
transmitters I guess...many of the IDs I got had to be while in
town Monday.
Yes, actually spent time in Kansas City (both two of them).
Being a trip with George on a weekday, you know it involved radio
stations and CD stores. With station ownership
consolidation, visits should now be easier with so many sharing
one address, though sticker collectors would not be helped
much...when one or more stations in the group even bother with
the things anymore, too many receptionists look at you funny when
asking for decals from two or more different stations (see
also my Las Vegas notes from 10/00 trip).
George did not do very well with CDs either, but I had my biggest
day since that Saturday in Cambridge in May '98. Also good
for magazines...Hobby Broadcasting (pirate radio) and Trips (yep, travel) were both
new for me. Hobby is the nearest this I saw to a
zine. Are there any zines from the Kansas City area?
(Besides Edward Quentin's of course.)
Lunch was at an unusual Furr's in or near Shawnee Mission
KS...unlike the cafeteria-style service at most Bishop's and
Furr's, this one was self-serve ala Old Country Buffet.
As originally scheduled, couldn't've done better deliberately, both our flights out would be at 6:15pm. We reached the Thrifty off-airport facility about 5pm, though I then needed about 15 minutes to squeeze everything into the 3 bags which had been no where near full at the start. American and USAir are about 10 gates apart in the same terminal, so we figured to check in at our respective airlines and meet up somewhere in between for the last round of idle chatter. I had the longer walk from the door, but after checking in I got all the way back over to USelessAir to see George deep in negotiations...seems the KC-Pittsburgh plane had not yet left Charlotte NC, so his connecting flight would be missed. Several calls later, they had him on United via O'Hare, though leaving from a different terminal and with a similar short transfer time. I half-expected to get home to find a message from George saying he'd gotten in too late to make his connection...especially after my plane pulled out of its gate exactly on-time, only to have to park on the side of the runway for 15 minutes waiting to regain landing clearance at O'Hare. As it turns out, George's flight did get to O'Hare late, and of course the connecting plane was as far away as it could be using the same terminal, but he did make it in time.
New Counties:
Kansas - 57 (for 105...completed state #25); Missouri - 2
(for 88 of 120); Nebraska - 8 (for 54 of 95)
Total New
Counties: 67 (for 2267, or 72%)
Visited, old &
new: 105 (IL - 1, KS - 83, MO - 10; NE - 10; OK - 4)
Miles Driven:
3,001
Favorite
Radio: Amazingly, too many to note! Includes KJHK and
KANU, both Kansas U in Lawrence; KOEZ; KVSV and
KVSV-FM, both Beloit KS; KZUM(?) Lincoln NE. Several
more, once I go through all the tapes.
Links
Take a ride on the transit pages