Pounding out the miles!

Well today we had a bit of a late start due to the fire that nearly burned off my finger prints and I have forgotten how much work camping is hence our decision to stay at a hotel tonight. We are in Kansas, I was going to avoid a Wizard of Oz reference but they sell the chotchkies everywhere. I got to thinking (lots of miles of corn to think) "Hey Kansas are you as tired of the Dorothy and Toto references as I am "Hey didn't Barry Manilow write a song about you?" Why couldn't it have been Mick Jagger or B.B. King or Kiss or Kanye West or hell, Ethel Merman? Why Barry Manilow...sorry I digress. And honestly I don't mind but really it could have been somebody a bit cooler than Manilow, right? This trip has been one of discovery. Today we stopped at the Brown Vs. The Board of Education landmark in Topeka. I couldn't get that illustration out of my head by Norman Rockwell "The Problem We All Live With". You know the one that shows Linda Brown being escorted to school by the police in 1954. Wow. Yesterday I got change from a Pilot gas station (I hardly ever look at my change) when we were in either Indiana or Illinois or who knows some state in the mid-drift. I looked and the penny I got was an 1899 Indian head penny. Can you say anachronism What the? I was wondering is it the strained economy that lead that penny into recent circulation or did it ever leave circulation? I wonder who the first person was to earn that penny? Who was president in 1899. Oh, right, William McKinley 25th (ok I didn't know that off the top of my head) and sadly he met his demise in 1901 at the hands of an assassin. My grandparents are about all I could link to 1899 they were born not long after 1909ish. I have the penny in my tank bag where I can see it so I can think about it and make up stories in my head. Today when Barb and I had to pull over due to unforeseen traffic and weather I found a mans silver ring. Who's ring and why? I wonder what I will find tomorrow? Mandi