Kansas. Or, Dorothy, you weren't dreaming, you really were blown away

Sunday April 26th

Sunday morning, another fantasy; "let's drive up to Guanella pass and see the the views from 11,600 feet" was squashed when we leaned that it had snowed many inches up there, and the wind chill was -3. Rain and snow were forecast for the front range. Time to go.

If there are 2 sets of permanent hand prints in the steering wheel of our car, it's purely from the drive from Georgetown to Salina KS, our stop for Sunday night.
First: Snow and more crazy wind in the front range.
Second: WILD wind, hail, rainstorms and blowing sand in eastern Colorado and Kansas. Neither of us have ever seen sustained winds like this outside of a hurricane. Gusts to 50? For 400 solid miles. Tumbleweeds the size of Charlie Brown christmas trees were blowing across the road and into the car. (I haven't checked for dents).

We outran the storms!

So what happens when there's fallow farmland and wind like that? Dust & sand. Visibility of maybe a mile? And this isn't rare-- the Salina area is called the smoky hills.

One interesting thing we that saw during this long drive were the wind generators east of Salina (aptly named the Smoky Hills Wind Farm). The structures were quite beautiful in the diffuse light and I'm sorry that I didn't stop for pictures (but I might have been blown away!). Wind provides nearly 20% of Kansas' electrical power. Pretty impressive.

Monday: We're following the yellow brick road ( I-135) to Oklahoma..Yeah, we know; "where the wind comes sweeping down the plain".