Dodge City

My little thunderstorm

Spent last night in Pueblo Colorado. Home of the government information pamphlets. Decided the route to take from here is Route 50. There are books about route 66 which goes from LA to something like Chicago, I'm not sure. No books about route 50. No songs either which is probably why there are on books. Route 50 goes from Sacremento to Lake Toahoe. As you get on 50 in Sacremento there is a sign that tells you how many miles it is to Ocean City MD. Every time I see that sign I think to myself maybe I won't stop at Tahoe.

Starting off in Pueblo I head east through small towns and open spaces. Ran out of mountains toward the end of day yesterday. This is the plains. After a bit, even the towns are gone. Just open space, one lane my way, one lane the other. Then, while listening to the Redskins loose big to Denver Broncos, a funny thing happens on the way into Kansas. The sign says "Welcome to Oklahoma". Uh oh, that's not right. It seems I took a wrong turn in Lamar CO and now I'm 100 miles off course. Well, I'm determined to take 50 so I take a corrective course on a road that Rand McNally indicates is a scenic route. I don't know what they think is scenic unless it's a railroad track running parralel to the road or a grain eleveator every 15 miles 'cause for about 100 miles there is not much else. Not even a bump on the horizon. But, my car is a star agian. When I stop to get gas people drove into the gas station just to look at the car. And I don't think they were Europeans. (Have to hold off on picking my nose)

Get to Dodge city in time for it to close. There is a real town there, but the replica Dodge closed as I got there. Oh well, at least I got to see the scenic drive in Oklahoma and take a picture over the fence of Dodge. Talked to a woman who couldn't understand why someone from California would want to be in Dodge. Then left town along Wyatt Earp Drive which is also Route 50.

More straight road and grain elevators. There is promise though in a big cloud and the chance to see a thunderstorm. I miss thunderstoms. Don't get 'em in San Francisco. I'm about 40 miles outside of Hutchinson (which is where I plan to stop for he night) when the storm starts. For some reason my palms are sweaty and I'm not feeling so good about this storm anymore. Then the rain really starts. And the winds pick up with gusts to 55mph. And the hail starts. Big hail. (don't know if the hail damaged the car yet, it sounded like it might have) I'm going 40 mph on a road marked 65 with 2 cars keeping pace behind me. Lightning on all sides. Now, on some TV show about getting hit by lightning (probably on FOX) they talk about getting a tingling sensation before they got hit. I get that feeling in my left foot and figure thats it. Nope. Three times I pull over and stop because I can't see a thing. All I want is to get some place to stop, but along the road is not a good place to stop. Besides there are people passing me. Locals who don't see the same need as me to make out a will on McDonalds napkins. I finally get to a motel. The women behind the desk looks out the door and says it doesn't look very bad. I think the people around here probably didn't see it as a big deal. maybe I'm out of practice with thunderstorms. It took me an hour to calm down and stop shaking. I don't think I need to see another thunderstorm.

Paul
9/27/98