Starting to Get Into the Swing 9/12/15

We woke up to a cold trailer and no power. Right away we pictured repair shops again. Bob checked fuses and everything he could think of in the trailer. Then it turned out it was just the old quality and bad connection with the park equipment. We were surely gun shy! Bob got things going good enough for showers and breakfast and our grouchy moods disappeared as we got on the road again. We stopped for gas in Strong City, Kansas and  drove into the most beautiful rolling, lush farmland with clumps of thick Black Eyed Susan flowers all along the road. The farms were vast, more like ranches. It reminded us of northern Texas with lots of grazing cattle and horses. 

We stopped on a side road to take a picture of a cool old school house dated 1896.

We passed fields of sunflowers and decided we loved highway 50 with its great scenery, smooth surface, and light traffic. There were even roadside parks to stop and walk Ben. We noticed several dirt roads heading off to the side, but otherwise it was a pretty simple, straight shot.

Then, near Dodge City, we hit some flat, barren, brown areas that were not near as attractive. We passed massive fields of wind mills. This was not a good part of Kansas. We kept trying to picture pioneers heading out this way. Highway 50 is the Sante Fe Trail.

We had to stop in Dodge City and see the tourist stuff and Boot Hill. After all these years and watching Gunsmoke, I had to see where Matt Dillon and Kitty were. It was actually a pretty, clean little town and very modern. We went to the museum, park area down town to walk around and see the sights. Bob tried his hand at cards with Doc Holiday and I met Matt.

We did not stay long as it was getting quite hot at 87. We fixed a quick lunch in the trailer and headed out. In this area, the land was pretty bleak with small scrubby towns along the way. We crossed into Colorado with 85 miles to go to our chosen KOA Campground in LaJunta.

We were more than ready to stop at the very nice, clean campground. It was a little dusty, dry with a gravel doggy area. Ben was a little confused with no grass. Just down from our trailer was a path through the fence with some grass and a path over to Walmart. That was perfect. We picked up some groceries and water for coffee, had a quick dinner, turned on the air conditioning and were in bed by 8:30. However that was Mountain Time and it's 10:30 at home. We slept well in the nicely quiet little park.