Heading back to Colorado, I decided to take a different route from Columbia since the landscape along I-70 has long been committed to memory. The alternative, hardly off-the-beaten-path, was to take I-29 north from Kansas City and then I-80 west from Omaha.
Driving north on I-29, my decision was rewarded by a spectacular lightening display over eastern Kansas. Just north of Mound City, Missouri, flooded fields began to appear, attracting huge flocks of egrets and white pelicans; then, at Rock Port, I-29 was closed almost all the way to Council Bluffs, the victim of persistent flooding along the Missouri River. A one hour detour took us across the hills of northwest Missouri and southwest Iowa, carpeted with crop fields and studded with wind farms. After finally crossing the Missouri at Omaha, I soon crossed the Platte River as well; though some sandbars broke the surface, the Platte was full and sluggish, presumably due to backup from the Missouri River, just downstream.
I would not encounter the Platte River again until I reached Grand Island, which lies between its meandering channels. From Grand Island westward, I-80 is paralleled by the Platte; its scenic, braided waterways, dunes and woodlands provide a welcome diversion from the monotony of crop fields and, nearing North Platte, the River's broad floodplain becomes sharply defined as the High Plains escarpment looms to the south and a landscape of sand hills stretches off to the north. Tomorrow morning, I plan to leave the Interstate highway to visit Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge, in western Nebraska.
