Day 25: Salina, KS
Nau mai
Yesterday we had a rest day in Salina, Kansas.
Lavonda had been travelling east through the night, crossing the remainder of Colorado and making it halfway across the state of Kansas. We found ourselves in the town of Salina, on the eastern reaches of the Great Plains, specifically the carpark of the Hampton Inn, one of the historical lodgings in this region.
There wasn’t much to see from the bus window so I shifted my focus straight to breakfast construction, bravely trying to put together a dish using the same old ingredients that looks fresh and interesting when photographed. I began with Nana Joe’s organic gluten-free granola, the sunset blend with pecan, mulberry, and coconut. Next I added some Chobani Greek yoghurt, and then a descent pile of blueberries to bring textural balance and symmetry.
I went for a run and was pleased to find that the city of Salina had provided a footpath on most of the route I was headed along. The road was straight. Dead straight, and dead east. I passed the huge megaplexes and then the housing developments and eventually made it to farmland, the geometric patterns in and around the fields providing pleasure for my eyes. The sight of a gravel road snaking its way through a cornfield never gets any less soothing.
Our activity of the day was one that didn’t require much effort. It just required us to turn up with open minds and open hearts. Annie treated us all to an afternoon at the movies, booking us tickets to see Wicked: For Good at the local AMC Theatre. We put on the greenest/pinkest clothes we could find in our strict tour packs and made our way to the cinema, ready to participate in a great cultural celebration at one of the exclusive preview screenings of this eagerly awaited sequel. It turned out that we were most of the audience for this preview screening, which suited us just fine, as we helped ourselves to the best seats and lay back to enjoy as much popcorn as we could legally obtain.
