Sleepless in Wichita

The Oklahoma Plains:  Wind Farms Galore

In about 15 hours I fly home from Kansas City.  It's hard to believe I started this leg of my route in New Orleans less than three weeks ago.  It feels like much more time has passed.  All in all I am enjoying the travel; my only real frustration is with the high cost of hotel rooms.  I was lucky tonight to have a decent room for $41.99.  In Woodward, OK I had to pay $114 plus tax.  That's too much for a place to lay my head.  Blame the oil and gas boom in Oklahoma for the fierce competition for hotel rooms.

Today I have three stops on my way to the Kansas City airport:  Augusta, Emporia and Topeka.  It's one of the easier days of this journey and is a relatively straight shot to my destination.  Once I wrap up, I will have 42 shops remaining in this 157 shop route.  I am getting close to needing new wheels due to the constant tire rotations.  Never realized that having my wheels torqued over 100 times would slowly warp those five holes where the wheels attach to the vehicle.  Eventually the lug nuts won't be able to hold the wheels to my vehicle.  I'm crossing my fingers I make it to the end of this route without having to purchase new wheels.

The last stretch of my route takes me out West to places I've never been.  I'm considering making a few detours along the way to experience the sites.  Within a reasonable drive of my next stops are Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, Las Vegas, and the filming locations for my current favorite show, Breaking Bad.  I have time to make these stops, so it's really a matter of deciding to spend a little extra for gas and hotels.  It's hard for me to let go of the job at hand to have a little fun.  My brain is wired to keep grinding whenever I have an opportunity to make money to maximize my earnings; it's hard to tell myself that it's okay to play tourist every now and then.