We're not in Kansas anymore

... but it took a while. That's a wide state and -- sorry, Dorothy, Bob Dole and other famous Kansans -- it's boring as hell. It took all day Sunday to drive from Kansas City, where we stopped after leaving Janice's house in Louisville, across Kansas and then through a smidge of Colorado to Michelle's sister Renee's place in suburban Denver.

We've had a great day-plus here, playing softball and going swimming with Allison and Alex (Renee and James' kids), going out to eat and then, tonight, all watching "School of Rock" on the AppleTV. Fun. That's Allison with Michelle, above.

As cool as this trip has been, Michelle and I are both getting a little horse-to-barn syndrome. After seven-plus weeks on the road, and at 30 states and counting, we're thinking now of amending our earlier plans of returning to Vegas and heading instead directly back toward Seattle. Pretty much blown the poker bankroll anyway.

Here are a few pics from the past couple of days.

Janice and Michelle in front of Janice and Andy's awesome old Victorian house:

Janice took Friday afternoon off and took us to what she calls "the oval office" -- the famous Churchill Downs -- where we bet a few races and managed almost uniformly to pick the losers. Michelle and Janice even put down a bet on Saturday's Belmont Stakes, pairing the sure-thing winner, Big Brown, with a couple other leading contenders in a "boxed Exacta" bet. Free money! Except Big Brown came in last place.

Then, on Friday night, we took in a minor league game between the Louisville Bats (the famous Louisville Slugger bats are made in this town ) against the Toledo Mud Hens at the retro cool Slugger Field.

After Louisville, though, as I said, it's a long slog between points of civilization. At one point in Kansas we checked the Garmin for the nearest cup of coffee. The options were all miles behind us:


Pretty sunset heading into Colorado:


Michelle's nephew, Alex, who is 8 years old, makes a mean hot air balloon out of paper. Kid's got skills.

Michelle and Renee at the local pool:


We're not sure of our exact route from here, but our tentative plan is to get up in the morning and then head north to Wyoming and Montana and then turn west toward Seattle. Probably a few more days on the road. Maybe more posts and pics to come.