Day 3: Dodge City KS to Jefferson City, MO (490 miles)

Bill:  how do you take a **** selfie?
Nance:  is this over yet?

We finally got an early start and managed to rack up quite a few miles. We took US 50 for a couple of hundred miles through Kansas. Bill calls US 50 America's Middle road, it stretches from Washington DC to Reno Nevada.  We have taken it often, particularly out west,

It is a beautiful but hot day with the persistent southwest winds pushing us to the left.  Lots of wind farms provided some visual variety through the Kansas flatlands.  US 50 avoided all of the big cities.  We enjoyed relaxed cruising with just an occasional slow down through picturesque small towns. Convenience stores served as our oases, we appreciated that they don't chintz on the air conditioning in these parts.

After Newton KS, we took a few jigs and jogs to leave US 50 and join KS 196.  This let us bisect the major traffic centers of Wichita and Kansas City.  196 was a rural road, it quickly started to develop rolling hills and as we approached the town of Eldorado and US 54.  Eldorado was a Cadillac, it looked like Main Street USA.  We motored by miles of modest and well maintained gardens and often classic turn of the 20th century homes.  Nance took the wheel here for a few hours.  She had not driven the LaSalle for a couple of years, but she found it easy to manage and enjoyed the experience.  

Nance takes the wheel.

US 54 is one of Bill's favorite highways. It makes a useful diagonal across Missouri and takes in the Lake of the Ozarks.  On the way, there are plenty of dips and climbs, and sweeping turns. The generous width of newly re-surfaced road was a treat for us and the LaSalle.  It would have been nice to check out some of the lake attractions, but we needed to keep focused on New Hampshire.

We ended the day in Jefferson City on a sour note.  The LaSalle suddenly developed two problems about 20 miles from town. The generator quit working and she developed a misfire at higher speeds. Bill wondered if the two problems were related.  He thought the points needed a bit more dwell, but didn't know about the generator.  We can live without it, but it will require that we get a charger so we can replenish the battery at night.  The LaSalle also requires lots of oomph to get it started.

We'll check out these issues tomorrow.  Meanwhile, we plan to tour the Modern Litho printing plant in the morning.  They print the VMCCA magazine "The Bulb Horn" and it should be interesting to see how they do it.

Au revoir from beautiful Missouri!  Tune in tomorrow, we'll let you know how that went...