please stop for a hotdog

I was in Kansas this week for the Veritas Conference- a conference of the Big 12 Conference’s Catholic Campus Centers.

While I was in the great and glorious state of Kansas, a “grey” state on my hot dog map, I had to find out more about Kansas hotdogs. Also, after the last day of the conference, we took Fr. Ed from the UCC to KCI Airport, just inside of Missouri.

We drop off Fr. Ed at KCI and head down I-29 toward Kansas City. We take the I-635 exit as a cut-off to I-35. We take the final exit before the state line in hope of finding a hot dog vendor.
After driving a few miles, we found it. A “PLEASE STOP!” gas station which proudly proclaimed “HOT DOGS!” on its windows. As it is with many of these hot dogs, it seems to work out just too well. I go inside and fix myself one of their jumbo dogs. Missouri is one of the states where gas stations can sell hard liquour- something I hadn’t noticed anywhere else before.
I make the purchase and enjoy it in the car just before hitting the road. One more state out of the way.

We hit I-35 and head towards Texas. We see a sign for Dairy Queen around noon and we thought the should work out for us as well. We stop in the town of Ottawa, KS at the Dairy Queen on Main Street.
I’m used to Texas where smoking in food establishments just doesn’t happen anymore; if it does, it is a section of the store. Apparently, this isn’t the case in Ottawa, KS. There are people smoking everywhere.

Amelia, Maria and myself all order a foot-long chili and cheese hot dog and enjoyed them with various “cool treats”.

With that, I am 15% along the way toward the goal of a hot dog in every state. Eight down, forty-two to go.