Day 4

Wednesday. 3:15pm. We have been driving through rural Kansas (and really, there's not much of Kansas that isn't rural) since 10am. We had planned to camp last night at Longview Campground near Kansas City, MO, after a long day of hiking and cave exploring and (of course) driving, but we couldn't find the campground due to poor signage and the lack of an address to put into the GPS. After getting decent directions from a local at a gas station, we were finally able to find it, but we pulled up 10 minutes after the office (which was really a small stand that looked more like a wood-enclosed tollbooth) had closed. We followed the "Attendant on Duty" sign to an RV and knocked on the door, practically begging to be let in, but the red-faced burly man was unsympathetic to our plight. I asked if he had any suggestions of where we might be able to rest our bones that night, and he just shrugged, basically to say "not my problem." We were frustrated, to say the least, especially after having driven for nearly an hour off our main route to look for the place, but weren't ready to give up on the idea of camping because it was such a warm, clear night. Assuming it would be too late to drive to and check-in at another campsite, I began to research free campsites in western Missouri and Kansas along our route. (Thank God for smartphones!) This led me to Woodridge Public Use Area in Lawrence, KS, a so-called "primitive" camping spot for tents only (no RV hook ups) with "vault toilets" and a water pump. It was about an hour and 40 minutes from where we were in Missouri and not too far off of Route 70, the road we planned to take all the way to Denver. I was pretty weary of the idea of sleeping in the middle of nowhere at a campsite with no sort of security, especially when traveling with valuables (cash, computers, iPods, iPhones, external hard drives holding invaluable photographs and everything I've ever written, this iPad, etc.), but Colin was determined to drive to at least scope it out and if it seemed too sketchy, we could always resort to a motel and at least then we'd still be a bit closer to our next destination.

I fell asleep on the drive there and woke up as our car bounced down a dirt road. (Driving in the daylight the next morning, I would learn that this is what i should expect from most of the roads off the main highways in Kansas. ) We were almost at the campsite. It was approaching 11pm so we couldn't see much as we pulled in, but we circled around the campsite and saw a couple other cars and tents and figured it seemed like an OK spot. 

We assembled the tent pretty quickly and as we were about to call it a night, we looked up at the sky and noticed how clear the stars were. It was windy but still warm enough that I didn't need a sweatshirt. I was glad we were camping after all, even if the "primitive campsite" meant we wouldn't be able to get a shower before we left. I fell asleep almost instantaneously, and save for a couple times during the night when I woke up because the wind was flapping our tent fly so loudly, I slept pretty soundly.

We're almost at our first and only planned stop for today on our way to Denver, Mushroom Rock State Park in the Smoky Hills region of Kansas. (Apparently this part of Kansas is so underdeveloped that some places don't even have town names; they just go by regions and "nearest cities.") More about that later.

Quotes from the road:

"Let's go to Hannibal and I will bite your head off" -Colin, upon passing a sign for Hannibal, MO

Cute signs and billboards we've passed:

Big Dick's Half Way Inn (Middle of Nowhere, MO)

Itchy's Flea Market (Lee's Summit, MO)