Osawatomie to Osage City

One thing Kansas is good for is sunrises. It's easy to see a big stretch of sky all at once, and the clouds are rarely totally absent or totally covering the sky.

This was a cool flower I saw today while I was on a fruitless detour. I wanted to avoid the scary road situation pictured below (65mph limit with no shoulder), so I took a side road that my Kansas map said should be paved, and found out after going about 10 miles out of my way that it wasn't all paved. Oy.

Later I saw a crop that I didn't recognize. Anyone know what it is? The leaves and stalks look like corn, but shorter plants and more leaves, and of course the tassle is replaced with a funky yellow flower bunch thing. Maybe sorghum?

After dinner at the local Mexican restaurant here, I was chatting with the waiter. At one point he asked if I was here on vacation (since I'd said I was from California) and I said yes. He said "You come to Osage City for vacation??" Hmm. Looking around the town, I can understand his perplexity. It, like almost all the towns I've stayed in, have been small farming communities. Each has a hotel, a bank, a "Casey's" chain gas station slash convenience store slash pizza restaurant, a Chinese food place and a Mexican food place. Of course there are lots of other things I don't notice much - feed stores, farm equipment dealers, etc. Just kind of made me stop and think.