Roadside Adventure Prospects and Yes, Dorothy, WE ARE IN KANSAS!

At 2-2:30 in the morning, is you are traveling West on I-70, there is no one, and I mean no one, on the highway.  In case you ever wondered.

But there are signposts up ahead (cue the music) next stop:  lets see, you have your choice of:

Fort Riley - Custer's House - The US Calvary Museum
Kansas Auto Racing Museum in Chapman
Eisenhower Library in Abaline
The Russel Stover Manufacturing Plant (tempted, figured they gave out samples)
The "Proud" Home of Bob Dole  - Russell, Kansas
Dorothy's House (and you thought it was just a movie) - but they post 'yellowbrickroadtrip.com' in case
          you need to figure it out
Fort Harlar Museum

And someone later said to me that they thought Kansas was just a place on the highway between Missouri and Colorado. HA!

I was traveling over rolling fields and grass lands.  Pretty country.  But I can understand why the tornadoes can ratchet up over those open plains and not much to stop or turn it.

Listening to KFRM out of Salina, KS (The VOICE of the Plains!) I got to hear Rick Lamb's Horse Show Minute for the first time!  When they say they are the voice of the plains, you can bet on it.  Weather reports for all the Plains states, informational topics on things like how and when to work cattle in hot weather, the grain yield reports and commodities.  Very interesting stuff.  I found myself listening for a long time until they started repeating too many things I had heard before.  Like the fact that it was going to be 100 to 104 degrees in the central states today.  Only need to hear that so many times before you just crank up the AC and step on the gas.

I found it interesting that the smoke from the Arizona wildfires had made it all the way into Kansas, which was why I had been seeing those really brilliant sunsets and sunrises.  But KFRM (the VOICE of the plains!) confirmed it, so it must be true.  If you can't  believe the voice of the plains, than who can you?

Passed a few more attractions, like the Farm Home Collection, (Farmhomecollection.com) and the Cheyenne bottoms wetlands and conservation area. 

I entered the town of Great Bend, which, really, it is a great bend in Highway 56 which was taking me from Salinis to Dodge City.  The town was very unexpected.  First off, I think it's definitely a city, and a fairly large one.  And secondly, they had public transportation!  That was something that is common where we are and that I saw very little of on my route west.  I figured this is a pretty progressive place when I spied this little yellow motel, with a name I could not catch, but with a big sign proclaiming that they have Temperpedic mattresses in every room!  Go figure!

I stopped for breakfast on the other side of Great Bend, in a little town called Larned, Kansas.  There I met and had conversations with Greg and Ray, two locals who work for the government department of agriculture.  As Greg said, everyone in town works for the government.  He was one of many people I was to meet along my way that had the same story: they were from someplace else, and had come to the Midwest for a job.  In this case, Los Angeles. 

They seemed to relate to me doing the same for the summer and everyone wanted to know what I was going to do and how I came about doing so.  And, I found out that pretty much everyone I ran into was a conservative person in their political leanings.  I began to wonder how we got a democratic president when everyone I talked to was leaning right. 

When they found out that I was from Massachusetts, the first thing everyone wanted to know was about Romney and Romneycare.  And I, of course, had to tell them that I had little respect for the author of that, and less for what it has done to devastate our state, and the downturn of medical care it has produced.  My opinion?  Vote for someone else for the Republican presidential nominee.  Here I am traveling west for a job since I can not find one in Mass and the state tells me I make too much money to get any assistance with medical costs.  They all seemed to feel that was as stupid as I did.  And yes, they were very worried that it would happen to them too when the national plan went into effect.

As I said goodbye and left the breakfast place, I heard for the first time what I think is the motto of everyone west of the Mississippi:  "MAKE SURE YOU DRINK PLENTY OF WATER AND STAY HYDRATED!"  OK, I take that to mean that ice cream floats and shakes from various fast food restaurants are included in that, so I vow to take regular breaks to stop for them.

Flat, about as flat as any I have been through
I kept hearing the lyrics to "My Pal Al" while I drove

Yeah, yeah, taken from the highway

Yeah, I know, that's a rear view mirror, but it shows that I was traveling, gives a point of reference, ah, heck, it just shows that I didn't feel like stopping to snap the wind turbines.  Great idea to produce wind power in a place where the wind never stops.

More of those pesky turbines, but it also shows that the land is not entirely flat!

I can not forget to tell you that Kansas is the birthplace of "farm credit" and that President Garfield (yes, there was a President named Garfield) was from Garfield, Kansas.  I am heading southwest towards that famous Wild West city, Dodge City.

Traveling down the highway in a 3/4 ton pick up at highway speeds, you don't actually know the exterior conditions until you stop for fuel or pit stop, but when I stopped in Spearville, about 15 miles out, for fuel, I realized that the wind conditions were unbelievable!  Now I have been in some windy places, and have experienced wind off the northern plains in the Dakotas, but I really was not prepared for this.  No, I did not have to walk bent over, but I had a new appreciation for Dorothy!  I could also see how that wind could change and become violent, and once started, carry itself along on those strong winds.  And they were not winds that cooled you off.  You still knew it was hot out there. 

I had to think about the settlers coming across the plains.  The heat, the constant wind in your face, the constant noise of it, the struggle against it, the lack of water, dehydration, there are accounts of people going insane from it in the old accounts of the early settlers.  It is easily understood.

But, onward I travel, and within a very short time, I am entering Dodge city, Kansas, in 97 degree weather.

Welcome to Dodge City!

Now the fun stuff starts!  See my next post for the adventures of this cowgirl in the town of the famous cowboys!  And here is a hint: yes, it is haunted!