Days 5 and 6: From the Mountains to the Prairie

We've done alot of driving the past 2 days. Thursday we drove from Santa Fe to Denver. That was not a bad drive and there was some interesting scenery. Today we drove from Denver to Columbia MO. and it was a long drive without much interesting scenery.
Thursday turned out to be Ripley's day. It started when we first arrived in Denver and took him to the self service dog wash. He had gotten dirty from the sandy Santa Fe soil and was mightily in need of a bath. We stayed with Dwyne's son Morgan and his wife Jessica although Morgan was out of town on business. They have 2 Labs named Tahoe and Pismo and Ripley fell in love with them both. They played and played. Today Ripley slept the entire ride.
When we were nearing Denver on Thursday we were wanting to stop for lunch so we pulled off at the town of Castle Rock. I was afraid we were going to have to settle for fast food when Jessica checked in with us to see where we were. When we told her we were stopping for lunch in Castle Rock she suggested a place called Pegasus and said it had a nice patio where we could take Mr R. It turned out to be the perfect place. They even brought him a bowl of ice water.
While the dogs were playing Dwyne and I had a nice visit with Jessica although we were sorry to have missed Morgan. They have a nice house in Denver and have just redone their master bath and it looks great.
Today we got an early start and had our first on time departure. We left at 6am knowing it was going to be a long day. Originally we were going to drive to Kansas City MO. but decided if we felt up to it we'd drive a bit further so we could be closer to the east. Around lunchtime I checked my Roadfood book and found a spot in Hays Kansas called Al's Chickenette which is said to have some mighty fine fried chicken. It's just a non-descript building with a big neon sign. Inside there's a counter and several tables. The walls are lined with chicken-related items and pictures of John Wayne, the tables are covered with ads for local businesses such as a mortuary, a Mary Kay representative , a bridal shop and a bingo parlor. The chicken had a great crunchy crust and moist meat and the thin cut fries were good too.
I took over the driving duties after lunch and Dwyne and Mr Ripley both napped. I amused myself by reading the roadside signs and businesses. There are lots of religious signs in Kansas but there are also "adult superstores" at about every other exit. At one exit just in front of the adult store was a religious sign with the tagline "porn destroys." And I picked up a bit of political trivia: Senators Bob Dole and Arlen Spector are from the same hometown (Russell Kansas). Bob Dole seemed to get more face time on the signs but that's probably because he stayed in Kansas. Several towns boasted that they were the hometowns of people I'd never heard of and it seems quite a few astronauts hail from Kansas. After what seemed like an eternity we finally got out of Kansas and were able to utter the words from the Wizard of Oz, "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore." Of course, we changed the "Toto" part to "Mr Ripley."
We decided our final destination today would be Columbia MO. It turned out to be a good choice . We found a La Quinta that's near the highway, had a great AAA rate and dogs are welcome with no additional fee (this is true of all La Quintas btw). But the best part is that it is a really charming college town. Thanks to the Roadfood book, I found a place called Booches which is famous for it's burgers. It's an old pool hall with a long wooden bar and some tables in the front and pool tables in the back. The burgers are small and the waiter said most people get 2 (funny, he didn't say that to the 2 thin co-eds at the next table). They turned out to be very good and are served on soft fresh buns with the standard ingredients. Nothing fancy...just plain good. Booches is located right in the downtown area which reminds me a bit of SLO or Athens GA. The University of Missouri campus is right by downtown and it looks like a very pretty one. The main building is very impressive.
Tomorrow we are heading for the Lexington KY area where we'll stay on the farm of Dwyne's friend Trudy. I will try and post more pictures soon. We have been pretty good about taking them so far.