Salina, KS

Yes, that's Salina (sal-eye'-nuh). It's a town about the size of Walla Walla in the middle of Kansas. Largely an agricultural town that, unlike Walla Walla, lacks the tourism component. We walked the downtown "main street" this evening and it was pretty dead. A lot of store fronts either closed or struggling. It seemed to be a vision of Walla Walla without the colleges or the wine industry. To their credit, there's clearly a group of people trying to keep the downtown area vibrant. Here are a few pics. The first one, strategically placed in front of the Dept of Corrections Parole Office seems to be a message to folks on parole:

 This statue along "main st" is a bit more uplifting:

 This one, the guy in front is branding a steer, is sure to be a big hit with the PETA folks:

 And, finally, here a shot of me in front of the official vehicle of the state of Kansas:

A constant here in Kansas seems to be 30mph winds. Here's a possibly comical timelapse of Laura and me putting up our tent in a brisk wind:

Speaking of wind, the drive along I-70 east from Denver to here was into a stiff head to cross wind. The miles-per-gallon display in the Honda was alarmingly low, about 23 mpg. Of course, the stiff head wind along with the 80mph speed all day probably didn't help.

It's pretty warm this evening and more humid than anything we've experienced so far on this trip. We're definitely transitioning to the typical hot and humid summer climate of the eastern United States. Fortunately, there seems to be no risk of thunderstorms this evening and we head off to St. Louis tomorrow where we will stay in a hotel!