Hello from Oakley, Kansas — home of beautiful rock formations, and five- and six-legged cows! Sorry for the lack of posts over the last few hours; our cell phones don’t get reception out here.

I was planning to post more than this now, from the hotel room, but our room doesn’t have three-pronged electrical outlets, and my laptop battery is about to die. So, I’ll post some of the cell-phone pics tomorrow when I start getting reception again (quite possibly not until Denver).

We are continuing to traverse the wide open spaces of Kansas. Meanwhile, my cell phone tells me there is an armed coup underway in Manila. Crazy stuff.

We just entered Kansas. In the rearview mirror, Kansas City, MO (and Toby’s food fish).

Becky just saw an Idaho truck. We have now seen license plates from 44 states — all except New Hampshire, Delaware, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Hawaii.

We are aiming to reach Oakley, KS — home of Prairie Dog City and the five-legged cow — by this evening. We have about 500 miles to go. But, as expected, traffic is moving much faster out here, and should be even better in Kansas (knock on wood).

As you can see, the car just went over 37,000 miles. It was at 36,155 when we left Buffalo.

We just crossed the Mississippi River and entered Missouri. Check out the Gateway Arch!

Toby resting on the cooler in the back seat. Awww.

Taking Toby for a walk in the gas station parking lot. (That is my finger in the bottom left corner. Sorry about that.) Now we are back on the road, heading toward St. Louis.

A sign at a Shell station at Exit 30 in Illinois (a few miles west of the town of Pocahontas).

Up at the crack of dawn, indeed. :)