Kansas Bound

 It definitely was MY turn to head to KS to visit best friend Joleen!!  I actually can't remember the last trip out there although if I was ambitious, I would scroll through my old blogs and find out when - but yeah, ambition isn't on the list today......

Anyway, I headed out EARLY on a Thursday morning, knowing it would take me at least 7 hours driving time to get there - more if I stopped a lot - and more if it was windy - and it ended up being almost 7 1/2 hours due to time spent in Limon!

Unfortunately it WAS windy - oh well - couldn't change that!  I decided to stop in Limon at my all time favorite place (ha ha) to grab a breakfast sandwich - (no choices in Limon) - so McDonalds it was for a quick sandwich standing up as I was already tired of sitting!  Then over to the gas station to top off the tank!  And THEN I was quite excited because I had googled a coffee place in Limon and actually found one - it was very close so I headed over for coffee!  Very cute place!  There were 5 people ahead of me - hmmmmm - I decided to wait because after all, coffee is a MUST when traveling!  So I waited and waited and waited......yes, they were VERY slow!  And I should have walked out but I REALLY wanted that coffee!  After about 15 minutes or more, I FINALLY got it and rushed back to the car to head out, anticipating that first sip!!  OH MY GOSH!!  The 2nd worst coffee I have ever had in my life!!  (#1 worst coffee was at a Starbucks at an airport where I literally took one sip and threw the rest in the trash!)  I was SO disappointed - but did end up drinking part of it as I drove......  I won't be going back there......

The drive was uneventful which is always a great thing!!  It was windy but I-70 was a delight to drive on after being on I-40 on the way home from Mexico - there are SO MANY trucks on 40 but 70 didn't have that many and I could just put it on cruise and go!!  Gas was cheaper in Salina so I filled up before I headed to Joleen's and was surprised that I was supposed to get 466 miles out of that tank - but more on THAT later!

It was great to see Joleen - we ate a quick bite and talked and talked and went for a walk and just enjoyed being together!    Friday we met Becca for coffee at Moka's - a really nice coffee place that is always packed!  We ended up sitting outside in the wind because it was SO noisy inside!!  And talked for 3 hours!!  OH MY!

By that time it was almost lunch time so we ran home to eat a bite and then went downtown to walk around seeing all the sculptures in the revitalized downtown and the murals!

A lady offered to take our picture in front of this mural!

I saw this sculpture and knew I had to take a picture for Glenn!

This is the water tower - and I love the picture that is painted on it!

Joleens' granddaughter Sophie works at a high end ice cream shop - she's been there a couple of years and actually makes the ice cream from scratch (the chiropractic owner of this place works next door).  I had dark chocolate raspberry and it was delicious!

This bright mural was lovely!!  So big I couldn't capture it with one picture so took 2 so you could see the entire mural!

After walking around downtown, we headed back to Jo's house and had fun looking through her old scrapbooks until another granddaughter, Riley, came over to visit - she stayed for 2 1/2 hours so we had quite the day talking!

Jo's back yard is full of plants, bushes, flowers and raised beds for veggies!  It sure keeps her busy - the poppies were just starting to bloom!

Saturday we drove around to a few garage sales, looked at more scrapbooks and just hung out visiting!  It was a nice quiet day!! Oh and I forgot to mention that when we had went downtown, I didn't think to close my bedroom door and the dog Molly came in and ate all of my snacks that I had in a bag except for one!!  OH MY - I DID have quite a few so Molly was certainly full after all of that!

Sunday I was up early and ready to head out - one more quick picture since I sure didn't take many "people" pictures!!

It's always hard to say goodbye but we sure had a great time together!  It was windy again driving home and I calculated my mileage and would still have 57 miles left in the tank when I got to Limon so I planned on filling up there!  As I got closer, my mileage kept dropping - soon the gas light came on (50 miles left) and I still had a ways to go - but I do believe that you DON'T get good mileage on that last 50 miles because I SHOULD have stopped to get gas, and soon there was NO place to get gas - I was frantic that I wasn't going to make it into Limon and when I did, I had 11 miles left in the tank - trust me, I WON'T do that again as it was much too stressful!!

It felt great to finally get home after that long, long drive by myself!