We're not in Kansas anymore

But we were. And we saw a lot of this:

Windmills. There were a ton of them.

However, before we reached Kansas, we had to make it out of Arkansas. It took us awhile because we kept getting sidetracked. We walked down a trail to explore.

On the trail

Then we took the scenic route on a mountain. The road ended up being a bit more rugged than we expected. The Tahoe did great though, and has been treating us well on the trip.

The mountain road we explored

A happy driver

We finally made it to Kansas after getting on the interstate to speed things up a bit. We met up with my friends Christina and Brooks, as well as their son Gideon and Christina's visiting mom. It was Gideon's first dinner out and he did great. He's a happy baby. And it was fabulous seeing my friends, though I never got a group shot of us.

Christina and Gideon

They met up with us at Oklahoma Joe's BBQ and we were definitely impressed with the food. Marshall says it was the best bbq he's ever had. I shouldn't be surprised; Anthony Bourdain listed it was one of the top ten places to eat before you die. The man knows good food and this lived up to expectation. We ordered ribs and brisket, per recommendation.

We got up really early the next day. It cut into our visiting time, but we knew it would take us awhile to get out of Kansas. However, in the midst of the amber waves of grain and windmill farms, we made one kitschy stop: Prairie Dog Town. In hindsight we probably shouldn't have bothered; it was kind of a dump and made us feel a bit icky looking at the animals on display. This will definitely be our only Roadside America stop on the trip. But we saw the five- and six-legged cows, a miniature donkey, and tons of prairie dogs. They were super cute! They also tunneled out of the "park" and were pretty much everywhere at this particular stop on the highway.

One of many prairie dogs

And after a long day of driving and doing crosswords in the car, we made it to the mountains! We are staying in Estes Park and are in love with the area. Amazing weather, breathtaking scenery, wildlife everywhere, and even our dinner was phenomenal. I will update on the park itself tomorrow. :)