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We made our way from Hays, KS to Colorado Springs. We gained about 4000ft in elevation through the day, although it is barely noticeable. We were in the highland plains.<\/p>\n
Along the way, we saw fields of sunflower, nodding donkeys extracting water for irrigating land that once saw dust storms.<\/p>\n We stopped at Goodland, KS, around about where part of Kansas State goes with Colorado Mountain time. Incredibly confusing. As if Kansas City, KS and Kansas City, MO isn’t confusing enough.<\/p>\n At Goodland, we found the world’s largest Van Gogh…<\/p>\n … and visited the High Plains Museum that has the first patented helicopter in the US.<\/p>\n We managed to find the National Weather Service Centre. We were unaware that we had to make an appointment for a tour, but they gave us a short one anyway.<\/p>\n It was very interesting to find out that weather balloons all over the world were released at the same time to get a good reading of the atmosphere. What happened way above gave them indications of what was to come. It was also interesting to note that none of the rooms where all the computers are not tornado-proof. Only a store room where the staff can wait out a tornado.<\/p>\n There’s not much going on in Goodland. The town was clean and quiet. But I found two ladies working on a mural for their school’s reunion. They had been painting it for over a year.<\/p>\n We made it to Colorado Springs and swapped the car, as by this time, it was flashing some service light that I did not understand. We got an upgrade to a bigger car. It was bigger in size, but the trunk was smaller and it took me a good 3 days to work out a system that fit all our existing bags – and more.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>