It was a great day to be on the road...

I love my job. I deliver medical oxygen to homes in a big truck all over Central Kansas 4 days a week. Most of the time I drive 200-300 miles a day and am home every night. I'm lucky too cause most of my customers are my friends and it is rewarding.

Today was a good one. I was going north and west and was very close to Nebraska. It was cold and very windy with a very gray sky but I chose not to be gloomy. In fact I find these cloudy days good ones for taking photos which is my hobby. I always take my camera with me because you just never know what is going to come along. Once I arrived at Scandia, KS I made a two block detour and hopped out of the truck long enough to snap this photo of an old pre-war gas station. I have a thing for old gas stations and I can tell you, they don't get much nicer than this one.

Then I continued westward and after a few miles I took a one block detour off the highway into an old ghost town and took a couple more photos. This was the bank in Montrose, KS population 6 people I think. I would guess that this bank closed back in the great Depression of the 1930's but not sure.

Next stop was a a few more miles down the road at Burr Oak, KS where I made a house call and also took a photo of this old 58 Chevy truck. I also had a good lunch at the cafe in this town and the special of the day was vegetable beef soup with grilled cheese sandwich and iced tea for $4.99. It was a good value on a very cold day.

After driving south for another hour or so I arrived in the very nice town of Beloit, KS. I got to see 2 of my favorite people in the whole world "the Eck's". After taking care of business, I sat down at the kitchen table to do some paperwork and my favorite Marge asked me if I had had any dessert yet today. I said no and she fixed that problem immediately. Homemade apple crisp with ice cream.....oh boy---it was my lucky day.

After a fun visit, sadly it was time to head south again and after driving another 40 minutes or so I was in some rural rolling pasture country hunting for a farm house that didn't seem to exist. After a 4-5 mile drive down some very rough gravel roads and only finding cattle and abandoned farmsteads, I gave up on that stop for now. maybe they will return my phone call and reschedule. Oh well, it was scenic anyway.

Only a few more miles down a county blacktop road and I entered the tiny town of Barnard, KS which is becoming a ghost town. Only the small post office was open. I took a few photos from my truck while I was downtown. The one old building that has the rusty "deluxe inn" sign over the door had old signage painted high on the front and part of that was advertising for "White Seal Beer". I've sure never heard of that one.

Now heading east and still driving the roads less traveled I spotted a flock of turkeys near the road in some corn stubble. I came to a quick halt and grabbed the camera. Of course I spooked them and they flew over the road right in front of me. I tried to get some photos...but no big deal as I see turkeys nearly everyday.

Not too much further down the road was yet another ghost town....this one named Ada, KS and I took a couple of photos there as well.

And then just a few more random shots from the day that I took along the way....
And so I made it back to company headquarters after refueling my truck, finished some paperwork and clocked out at 5 pm and began the 20 minute commute home to Poverty Flats.
So there you have it, an eight hour, 250 mile drive thru the countryside with good food, good friends, and good scenery. Like I said, I'm a lucky guy.....
Thanks for riding along and next time I will take you somewhere else. Everyday takes me somewhere fun where the simple life is the good life.....