Today was all about driving and trying to get as far east as possible, so I thought I wouldn’t have anything to report… but I do!

First of all, when we came into Georgetown, Colo., last night, we noticed a sign for a bighorn sheep “viewing area” in town. Before we left this morning, we went into the Georgetown Welcome Center to get the scoop. We really wanted to see a bighorn sheep to add to our collection of large wild mammals we’ve gotten to see on our trip. The lady at the welcome center told us they have this huge herd of bighorn sheep that live near the town, and she directed us to the viewing area (where there is information as well as pay telescopes) and also told us the next town over often enjoyed the pleasure of bighorn sheep standing in residents’ yards. Soooo, we were very determined, and after trying the viewing area and making two trips across a small stretch of I-70 and back, we were successful!!!

They’re kind of hard to see because they are the same color as the rocks, but these were relatively easy to spot because some dude had decided to double park his car on the shoulder of I-70 and walk straight into the herd with his point-&-shoot camera. Um… wild animals are dangerous?! But go for it, I guess. Anyway, because this guy had disrupted the sheep, they were walking around a bit, possibly in order to get the best angle from which to charge the guy and ram him in the chest. We didn’t stick around to find out. Instead, we drove to Kansas!

(I have to tell you that before we left Colorado, we visited the Colorado Welcome Center at Red Rock Amphitheater, which is a really interesting place where there is a natural amphitheater formed by rocks. We were hoping to find something quick and iconic we could do when we passed through Denver, but the guy we spoke with at the Welcome Center [who was very nice and quite enjoyable to talk to, but reminded Brian of Abe Simpson] had no suggestions whatsoever for Denver and instead told us all about a restaurant in Abilene, Kansas. He also had a lot of difficulty remembering the names of things; for example, he referenced “a big hole in the ground.” He meant the Grand Canyon. We loved him!!)

We made a stop in Goodland, Kan., to see this giant easel:

That easel is 80 feet tall. See Brian (who is 6′2″ tall) in the bottom right corner of the photo? The Van Gogh sunflower reproduction is 24 by 32 feet. Pretty awesome, Goodland, Kansas!

As if that weren’t enough, on the back of the painting, we discovered a bird condo.

See them??

The next highlight of the day was finding a place that had gas for $2.85 a gallon:

I haven’t seen numbers like that in a while. Other than that, the rest of day was mostly like this:

We’re now at the very, very lovely Econo Lodge in Junction City, Kansas, and I mean it when I say it is lovely here. Its loveliness is especially poignant tonight because we had to leave our first hotel, the “Red Carpet Inn,” because it was infested. I sure wish I were joking, but I’m not. That’s what we get, I guess, for trying to save, like, five dollars. Really, almost every place we’ve stayed in has been completely fine and at least clean; I’ve stayed in a lot of cheap motels in my life, and this is the first time I’ve actually had to get my money back and go elsewhere! But anyway, the Econo Lodge suffers no such problem, and we are clean, happy, and unafraid to use the shower. Plus, I think my heart rate is coming down from my near-panic attack in our former room. Hooray!

We’ll have another day of driving tomorrow. I can’t promise more bighorn sheep and giant easels, but you never know!

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