Days 11 and 12: Dodge City, KS and Colorado

After a wild night in Wichita we hit the road, but before we could really get started, breakfast was needed. While at Club Rodeo, we were told by the MC of the rodeo that if we were to mention that we were at Club Rodeo the previous evening we would receive a 20% discount on our meal at America’s favorite breakfast destination. Joe and Corey headed into Denny’s, grand slammed our discounted food and hopped back into the RAV4 to head westrural Kansas through . 

 

Take a look at Kansas.

A burning field of corn. The most exciting thing in Kansas.

The drive through rural southern Kansas was covered in large scale industrial farms growing, you guessed it, corn. A whole lot of corn. The flat land provided us views of the farmland that made it seem like these farms lasted forever. Dotted across the landscape were tall silos for corn and grain that were built adjacent to the railroad, allowing corn to be transported by rail or truck. The road to Dodge City was a single lane highway providing the both of us with some tricky driving situations.  The best part of driving on this road (US-50 for all of those mapping out our route at home) were the straight shots of the road in from of us looking like some sort of mirage, as if we were driving into some sort of time warp. There were few towns on US-50 along the way but we stopped at the largest and most historically significant town on the road, Dodge City.

We checked our 6-shooters at the city line

The Boot Hill museum on historic Front Street has been one of the highlights of our trip so far. The museum was a re-creation of what Front Street looked like in the 1870’s at the height of Dodge City’s fame as a lawless frontier town filled with gamblers and outlaws. 

The Long Branch Saloon

We started out watching a short film on the history of the town. Then shortly after we walked over to the famous Boot Hill, a gravesite for many unlucky 19^th century residents of Dodge.    From there we stopped to have a cold one (sasparilla that is) in the classic Long Branch Saloon, where we chatted with the barkeep about our trip and Dodge City. Since we were visiting in the “winter” season many attractions weren’t running such as the show inside the Long Branch Saloon and of course, a classic gun fight on Front Street. 

Historic Front St.

From there we walked from the saloon into the shops, which were all connected into a museum that chronicled this life and times of Dodge City from its inception till modern times. The Jail and gun collection featuring classic rifles and pistols (many of them used by the famous lawmen that patrolled the town) were some of our favorite parts. There was also a house that was built in the late 19^th century that was moved in to preserve it during urban renewal in the 1970s. While we weren’t allowed to walk up stairs, the downstairs was set up to look as it would have during the late 19^th century.

Good ole fashioned home cookin'

We got the heck out of Dodge, jumped back on US-50 and passed more large farms and some massive CAFOs or feed lots where herds of cattle are concentrated for feeding. These lots are truly massive and stretched on for about a mile of just cattle and feeding operations.  While Corey has seen these on the before in his studies, it was remarkable for him to see them in person.  After searching for a campsite, we found one located in Deerfield. Oddly enough, it was called the Deerfield Beach campsite, named after the small man-made “fishing” pond located on the site’s west end. The site was cheap and had the amenities that we needed. This was another landmark event for our trip because this was the first night that we broke out the propane stove and cooked ourselves a hearty meal of chili and rice topped with shredded cheddar cheese. It was the perfect meal to end our day as we ate under the stars and waning crescent moon rise over the eastern horizon. 

We woke up this morning, packed up camp and headed west to our ninth state of the trip as well as our third time zone, Colorado.  We stopped on the side of the road to take picture of our boarded crossing as well and grabbing a picture with the “welcome to Kansas” sign that we missed upon our entry into the Sunflower State. We stopped at a local eatery in Holly and had arguably the best breakfast we have had this trip (other than Lou Mitchell’s in Chicago). As we were traveling along 160 passing through the town of Blanca, we were sniped in a ridiculous speed trap. We were pulled over and issued our first, and only, speed ticket of the road trip. As we speak to you know, we are in Alamosa, CO at a local coffee shop grabbing their free Wi-Fi  and a cup of joe before we head out to find a campsite for the evening.