I can easily say I’ve never thought of spending vacation time in Kansas but here we are and we’re finding some interesting things to see.
Among those things are large wind farms with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of gigantic windmill generators, rolling prairie with miles of roads disappearing in the distance and thousands of stone fence posts and old stone buildings.
Then there’s also the names of places and people I grew up hearing on Saturday westerns –Hickok, Cody, Fort Hays, Santa Fe Trail, Dodge City and Boot Hill, just to mention a few.
We spent a couple of days in Russell, KS, and have now moved to a park in Dodge City, KS. We’ll be here until it’s time to head to Omaha, NE, for our next job. Weather and time concerns convinced us not to push ourselves to see Colorado in only a couple of days. We’ll be back when we have adequate time to do it right.
I think every place I’ve ever visited had it’s own beauty, sometimes we must look closely. I have a vivid memory of a driving experience going east on !-70 and just crossing into Kansas. Everything was flat until I came to a place where the road crossed over the railroad tracks. As I crested the overpass I could see for miles to the east. I smiled because I thought it may be the highest point in Kansas. And, I think you are correct in that the prairie does have far more dirt roads. I venture on them all the time.
Yea, I’m continually surprised at how much we find to enjoy wherever we go, Monte. It’s all about the mindset you approach things with. I too love exploring those dirt roads. :-)
Those stone fence posts will outlast us all!
Steve, I suspect those posts have already out-lasted at least one generation. They are very short, however, perhaps only 3 to 4 feet tall. Must of had much shorter cattle back then. ;-)
Barb and I have driven these long rolling hills of Kansas many times now (and we will again very shortly). Every time we do it we wonder how settlers from 150 years ago did it in wagons and on horseback. It’s one thing to look down a road that seems endless when you’re going 70 miles an hour. It’s quite another (I imagine) when you’re only doing 20 or 30 miles a day and there is no road. We too like looking at the old abandoned farm buildings. Life must have been hard back then. And that “Cathedral” seems so out of place to me. You can see it easily from I-70. And the town just doesn’t seem big enough to support such a large church.
Now you’ve done it, EB. My travel juices have started to flow…….
Not for nothin’, but now that you’ve seen some of Kansas you have to ask yourself: How many “wonders” can they have (not counting their basketball teams)?
Paul, Bonnie and I have the same conversation about what it must have been like traveling by wagon, horseback or walking. We went to a place just outside of Dodge City today where you can stand among the rolling hills and still make out some wagon ruts from the Santa Fe Trail. Pretty Amazing.
When we stopped to see the “Cathedral” we became engaged in a conversation with a strange old woman who lived across the street. She was insisting she would hold Maggie while we went inside. We couldn’t be certain of her real intentions but for sure she wasn’t getting her hands on Maggie. LOL
I’m thinking the bar on “wonders” might be set a little lower in Kansas then some other places!
I’m pretty certain it’s not hard to get you ready to head west again! :-)
If I could think of a perfect place for wind farms, it’s Kansas! Nothing to stop even the slightest breeze there. Yet, like Monte said, I think that it has its own beauty. I think that you portrayed it well, Brooks. Roads and horizons, roads and horizons. :)
I also find the rich history of Kansas during the expansion west to be interesting, Paul. Not so much something you can easily capture with a camera but interesting to experience being at some of those same spots and trying to imagine the mindset of the people at the time. Not someplace I’d want to live long term but I’m finding each and every place has something interesting to share. Thanks! :-)