I left St. Clair around 6:30 this morning (time zone change!) and headed up US50 to Jefferson City, Missouri's state capital. The terrain was beautiful, with rolling hills and lots of green the entire trip. I stopped at the Missouri State Capital building and got a couple pictures:
There was a plaque in front of the capital building that discussed some of the history of the state capital and Jefferson City during the Civil War:
If you double-click on the picture, you should be able to read the information. Pretty informative.
I left Jefferson City and headed west on US54, which I'll be following all the way to Dodge City, where I meet up again with US50. US54 heads south out of Jefferson City to the Lake of the Ozarks, about 50 miles south. Very busy place, very pretty, very well-developed. From the Lake of the Ozarks, I travelled west through south-central Missouri. The further west I got, the flatter the land got and the drier the landscape became. You can really see the damage the heat and drought has done to crops in this part of the country. Acres of stunted corn that has just died and dried up. This picture was taken near Collins, MO:
This happened to be a field of hay, but the corn fields looked the same. Further along, near Eureka, KS you could see some of the dried-up corn fields:
The landscape was just like this all through western Missouri and eastern Kansas...hot, dry, dead.
I stopped in Fort Scott, Kansas, just over the state line, where they have an old restored fort dating from the time when Kansas was a territory. It was very impressive and well-preserved:
This was the main visitor's center, which was one of the original buildings from the original fort. Below is another view. The building in the center is the enlisted men's barracks, the building on the left is the horse barn, and the building on the right is one of the officers' quarters:
The town of Fort Scott grew up after the fort was abandoned and was pretty interesting and well-preserved:
Anyway, I arrived in El Dorado, KS about 5:00 today. El Dorado is about 20 miles northeast of Wichita. I'll be leaving tomorrow for Lamar, CO by way of Wichita and Dodge City.
Miles today: 382. Total: 1,464.
