23 June 2019
“I smell coffee.”
“That’s not coffee. That’s a skunk.”
Ulysses to Sharon Springs, KS (418 km)
For the first time on this trip, my alarm woke me. We met up at nine and Bill had decided not to do Texas as there was a lot of cold air going down with the massive boundary layer going through Oklahoma.
So, we did an extended briefing and hung around while the time-lapse group had a lecture. We visited a local market to get some fruit and then we all went north towards Leoti for lunch.
With one stop en route.
One member of the group had a great logo with a silhouette of him hanging off the side of a windmill. He gave us a look at the real thing.
We got into Leoti just before one, and at first, I thought I was going to a feed store for lunch.
The restaurant was in the back and it was delicious. I had a turkey club and root beer.
From here, we headed north to MacAllister and turned west, driving to meet an early storm coming out of Colorado. The time-lapse group separated from us and went off on their own again.
We met up with the storm just west of Oakley, Kansas.
We didn’t expect a tornado but we got some nice structure.
As the storm chased us back into Kansas, the hail core caught up to us.
It added a couple of spider web cracks to the windshield.
Looking back at the storm system, it looked pretty ominous.
We kept up to the storm as far as Oakley, Kansas and then turned around to meet a second system near Arapahoe, Colorado.
We made one stop for a few minutes, but the rain caught up to us.
We loaded up and headed east. The hail also caught up to us and pounded the van so hard, my ears were ringing afterwards.
We got to Sharon Springs and turned south to watch the last of the storm go by.
It was late afternoon and the storms were done for the day. Bill picked a bed and breakfast in Sharon Springs and said he hadn’t been there before. We were the guinea pigs.
It was an old Methodist church converted into the B&B and what a great job they did. My room was two full bedrooms with three beds, a sitting area and gorgeous bathroom.
It was a sweet spot!
Go to Day Three
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See also: Bill Reid’s entry on 23 June