Day 51: To Phillipsburg (Tues 15th July)

I wanted to get up early to get ahead of the heat but I slept in and didn't leave Smith Center until 9.40. It felt like late afternoon. Today I'm now making only a short hop of 30 miles to Phillipsburg. I'm making this a turning point. I'll get there early, sort my gear & send most of it to california. With a lighter load I should make better progress faster. This will hopefully bring about a better attitude, make it easier to hit 90 miles & in turn raise confidence & morale because I do feel I'm struggling.

As I leave Smith Center there's hardly a cloud in the sky. It feels like I'm going out in to a vast sea. The landscape just spreads away in all directions. I'm beginning to see just how large these plains really are. If I could describe how it looked. Imagine looking out over the ocean on a calm, still day. There are no waves, no ripples on the surface, just gentle swells undulating over the water as it stretches to a distant horizon. Now, transplant that image on to land, add light shades of green with mottled patches of yellow for the grasslands. Off in the distance add tracts of gold for stands of wheat and darkgreens hitting the horizon where sweetecorn is growing. There are very few buildings. Here or there an isolated homestead is seen occasionally or maybe on old abandoned farmhouse. Above is an empty sky blue. Its very warm and humid. The temperature is 35c . It is quiet. All you can hear is the breeze which rustles through the grass. Every so often a car or lorry races by breaking the peace. On the breeze you can smell the warm grasses, a bit like the smell of hayfields on a hot day at home. Occasionally you get the sweet scent of an unknown flower nearby. Picture a grey road that runs across these undulating plains straight into the distance. If you can hold that picture in your imagination for a moment or two then, in your own mind, you will be very close to this part of northern Kansas.

I got to Phillipsburg around 12.30. Got a box for my stuff, packed it up and posted it to California. The heat this afternoon became opressive, over 40c. I'm glad I stopped when I did. Walking through town & back to the room was enough for me. Phillipsburg is nice enough. A small town with a defined centre. A town square huddled around a courthouse. The shopfronts show a now familiar Kansas style.