I left Warrensburg a few minutes before 8 in the morning. I took US-50 toward Kansas City to where it connected with I-470, which became I-435, the circumferential highway around Kansas City. That took me up to I-70 headed west. I drove west through Topeka to Salina, then hopped on I-135 south to McPherson. I arrived before noon and went straight to the library on Martin Street just a block north of the main drag, which is US-56. I parked and walked into the library with a copy of the Christian Book and talked to the librarian at the front desk. I explained why I came and gave her the book. She turned to another librarian and asked for me to wait while they got the experts in genealogy to come talk to me. Two of them arrived, one of which was the one that we were in contact with that provided much of the information about the Geiman family in Kansas. I relayed the information I reported on in Velma Found, an earlier blog, to their amusement. Having discharged another book delivery duty, I went looking for lunch. At the librarian’s suggestion, I went to the local Italian Restaurant, and had a nice salad and spinach ravioli. Quite good, I might add.
After lunch, rather than find a hotel, I decided to keep heading west until I felt like stopping for the night. I took US-56 west to Great Bend, then US-281 north to I-70. I was running low on gas by then, but thought I could make it to Hays, just a bit over 400 miles on the tank I filled in Warrensburg. Theoretically, I could go nearly 480 miles on a tank of gas when getting over 35 mpg (and that’s what I am getting on this trip), but when the gas gauge lights get down to 2 bars, which usually kicks in at a bit over 300 miles, I start looking for a gas station. In this case, at just over 400 miles, it dropped to one bar; the first time I have let it get that low. While in Hays, I tried to get a room, but every place I tried, in Hays and further west to WaKeeney, was booked up. One of the hotel attendants in Hays said that there are just a lot more folks on the road now that at any time since the onset of the pandemic.
But I found a place at Quinter, a bit closer to Denver, so less time driving tomorrow. With delivery of the Christian Book to the McPherson Library, I have a wrap on the genealogy part of this trip. A visit to friends in Denver; a visit to friends in Henderson, NV; and then I head home.