I think we're in Kansas now, Toto. When looking at the map for where to stop off in Kansas I thought I would pick the obviously named Kansas City. That was until I found out it's in Missouri, right on the state line. Well, honestly, who would name a city in their state after a different state! At least Oklahoma City is in the right state because that's where I'm headed next!

I refered to my guide book for a good stop-off in Kansas and it recommended the college town of Lawrence, Kansas, home to the University of Kansas. I found a reasonably cheap hotel right near the bus station and not too far from downtown and I knew I was onto a winner when I checked in (at 10:15pm because the bus was very late!) and the clerk told me the bar was open until 2am. What? A bar? Excellent! So as soon as I had dumped my stuff in my room I returned to the bar.

When I walked in it felt like The Shining because the bar was quite a reasonable size with a dozen tables, because they do food in the evenings too, but the only person in there was the barman. I got my beer and noticed that one of the five flat screen TVs was showing Comedy Central, specifically The Colbert Report, which I have found I love since I've been out in the US. The first beer was my I've-just-got-here-after-a-long-bus-journey beer and the second one was the slow, enjoyable one.

I had just one day in town, which was plenty. As with my previous stop in Omaha, Nebraska it was very humid outside as I walked the 1.5 miles downtown. As I got to two blocks away the humidity reached a maximum level as it started raining heavily. Just as it got bad I was next door to a bar so I thought it a good time to get some lunch.

The downtown area really is quite nice, compared to most of the smaller towns I've been to. There are about eight blocks of shops on both sides of the main drag, Massachusetts Avenue, and aside from a Starbucks and Gap they all seemed to be independent to me. There were also, inexplicably, at least six barbershops but despite what fate was trying to tell me I refused to get my hair cut. I've let it grown for the whole time I've been here and it's finally reached a length where it sits quite well so I'm going to see where it goes from here. Probably downwards. There were also two second-hand bookshops on the street and they were busy - a good sign.

At the bottom of the street there's a large park but since it had rained I couldn't sit on a bench for a rest, and standing in the park for a while just isn't the same. So I returned to my hotel room because I had a second mission that I needed to complete. Thus far I've had a fairly good idea of where I've been going and how I was going to get there, but after Oklahoma I know what states I'm going to but haven't got much of a detailed plan. So I spent five hours drawing up a full itinerary to take me around the Southwest and the mountain states and I also booked an organised trip in Alaska. So now I'm on a definite deadline to be in Seattle on a particular day to get a flight up to Anchorage.

There is a lot of car hire needed to get out to the national parks but I always knew that would be the case. Luckily I've found that using sites like Hotwire.com and Priceline.com you can get very good deals with the major car rental agencies. So I shall have to see how that goes. I must say it'll be good to drive around for a bit - I'm getting really sick of the type of people that go by bus and the seemingly always late buses. I'm sure back at the start of my trip in the northeast there were far fewer delays and latenesses (yes, that's a word). But now it seems like every single bus ride ends up with a delay of an hour or more arriving. Maybe it's worse in this part of the country, maybe it's the extra passengers because of summer or maybe it's gotten worse generally. Whatever the reason it's always annoying!

My impression of Lawrence, Kansas is that it's another American town that sprawls out but that manages to have a decent downtown shopping and dining district. The Greyhound bus station is the first one I have used myself where it's a booth inside a gas station. I've seen my buses stop at them before and pick people up, so it's weird to think of myself as one of those people who's coming from a small out-of-the-way place.