Epic Road Trip 2009 - Day 6, 7, 8 (July 3-5, 2009)

Day 6, Panorama Point, Nebraska and Mount Sunflower, Kansas - After we had defeated the highest point of Colorado, the remaining points in our plans were not very difficult to climb. Because we had opted to stay in Denver, however, we had a long day of driving to cover the remainder of our goals in one day.

The day started around 8 AM with a trip to my 2nd Denver culinary recommendation, the Trompeau Bakery. Though they don't have a website it is right across the street from the University of Denver and have excellent French pastries. Several years ago, I was convinced the girl working there was my soul mate. She was nowhere to be found this time around...somehow I fought through the heartbreak and we were on the road.

We headed north on I-25 and cut through the corner of Wyoming. This was my first experience in that state but it seemed a lot like other states I had been to. We soon had to leave the large roads in favor of small, questionable county roads in Nebraska. After following the roads and navigation system we soon found ourselves being expected to pay 3 dollars per person to experience the 5,424 ft Panorama Point.

We ponied up the cash to maintain our honor in this exercise of the honor system and soon hopped out of the car to see a concrete monument atop a gentle rise in an empty field. Yes, we had made it to the highest point in Nebraska.

Amazingly enough, there was another soul there to see the same thing. Paul was a veteren highpointer whose completion number was over 40 and thus he garnered some respect from the team. He had been to Panorama Point multiple times, thus losing a large portion of this respect almost immediately. However, he was very nice and agreed to take our required photo.

Upon hearing we were headed to Mount Sunflower, he went that way too. Apparently he had not had enough midwest highpoints for the day.

Panorama Point quickly lost all importance to us and we scurried to Kansas to climb the almost equally thrilling Mount Sunflower. These points seemed more like a chore than an adventure. We just drove some more backroads in flat states and eventually found ourselves at the highest point of Kansas. It was slightly better than Nebraska for two reasons: 1) it was free, 2) it was more kitschy and cute.

Our friend Paul was true to his word and soon joined us in Kansas. The fact that someone else was doing the same thing as us made us feel simultaneously better and worse about ourselves. Nonetheless, we were glad to have a photographer.

These chores being completed, we headed to our awaiting lodging in Neodesha, Kansas needing only a successful recovery to call our mission a success.

As we drove through the flatness of Kansas we came through a hellacious storm that rained, then hailed, then acted like it wanted to tornado before abating to allow us to live.

I think Nate's Honda Fit endured some hail damage which can be called battle damage to make it seem more awesome. By 11 PM we were in Nate's hometown having completed all 5 highpoints we set out to accomplish.

The following day we enjoyed a Kansas Independence Day and on the 5th completed the last leg of the trip back to Fort Worth.

We have now climbed 54,067 of 308,105 ft or 17.55% and by climbing some actual mountains legitimized our undertaking considerably. We also filled in a lot more space on our little map.