Flooding in Kansas and Missouri

5/20/2019

The plan today was to get to Arkansas, but the weather is against us.  The rain was now sporadic and lighter, but heading east from Wichita, there is lots of flooding.  There are many new lakes in Kansas and Missouri where once there were vast crop lands there are now vast lakes.  Most of the creeks and rivers we crossed were out of their banks, or very high.  At one point, we had to ford a stream that used to be a road!  There was a flashing sign board that said, "Standing water on road", and a little further along there was a DOT truck with flashing lights where the water was flowing across the street.  There was an area about 100-200 feet long with 1-2 inches of water.  As traffic was light, I just drove slowly down the center on the crown of the road and got through with no problem.  But, the weather slowed us down enough that we only got as far as Branson, MO.  We had never been to Branson, and we were pretty disappointed.  There is a lot of traffic and it reminded us of Gatlinburg, TN.  It's not very pretty and there are areas that are run down and unattractive.  Lots of garish signs for all the shows.  We were underwhelmed.  Had dinner at Landry's Seafood then were looking forward to leaving in the morning.  At least the scenery has changed from flat and vast to rolling green hills and trees!