Home Again

We arrived home to find our wifi modem, router, and answer machine were dead. ATT worked surprising fast in getting service restored. I though I would end this with a bouquet of sorts. We have identified what we could and some of it might be correct.

Bee Baum

Soapweed Tree

Buffalo Gourd Plant

Buffalo Gourd/Squash

Cholla Flower

Cholla Flower

American Century Plant

Century Plant Flower

Notice to all my fans

This probably ends this particular excursion. We have allotted four more travel days to get home but have no sites or sights on the program. I do plan to do a final posting with some photos when we get home (Saturday).

Abilene, Kansas

All my memories of Kansas are dominated by HOT temperatures. This stop in Abilene has not, and will not, modified my memory. Ninety five degrees, feels like 105, and 200 percent humidity. Our reason for stopping was to pay respects to Ike and Mamie. They are buried on the grounds of the presidential library. The museum is at the end of a multi-year exhibit about World War Two. Artifacts, A-V presentations, and an overwhelming amount of text to read consumed nearly three hours of our day and I have a very short attention span. The situation did not lead to photography.

The railroad stations, however, did call for a couple of snapshots. The first is the Rock Island Railroad station built in the 1880s. It currently is used by an excursion railroad. The second is a classic of the first half of the 20th Century.

Fort Larned

The Santa Fe Trail had US military posts from Fort Leavenworth to I guess Santa Fe. What makes Fort Larned unique is that much of it survived and the National Park Service has restored a good portion of it. Two things contributed to its survival, stone construction and being adjacent to the middle of nowhere. It follows the usual pattern of a square enclosed by officer's quarters, barracks, shops, and storehouses. Life at the post was also the usual pattern, the boring day to day existence of the 19th Century army bringing safety to Kansas and preparing the way for Dorothy and Toto.

Officers Row

Barracks

The Shops

Warehouses

The post was closed in 1878 so I don't if GWG was a military graffiti artist or just one of the first civilians to leave their "mark" in one of the walls and hundreds have followed his or her example. It is a shame that people need to insure immortality in this way. But then if Facebook did not exist we would have had to invent it.

As with most military posts there are chiseled stones but the names had to be added by others.

Dodge City

As some of you may know, one of our flimsy excuses for wandering around the country is to visit places where our favorite, or maybe not so favorite, movies were made or were supposed to have taken place. Dodge City, Kansas, certainly takes care of a lot of cinema, Errol Flynn's Dodge City, Henry Fonda in John Ford's My Darling Clementine that had one, or maybe the only, great performance by Victor Mature. He once said he was not an actor and had 62 movies which proved it. Like Clementine most of the Tombstone/OK Corral flicks begin in Dodge. We all have seen the 600 plus episodes of Gunsmoke.

Dodge was railroads, cattle, farming and all those related businesses. Dodge is still railroads, cattle, farming and all those related businesses. History is remembered here but it is secondary at best. Statues, plaques, and the Boot Hill Museum with periodic gunfights play to the tourist. Not a major market.

Although Dodge City was a tad disappointing, the Dodge House did have a good breakfast buffet, not that I care about food. After that we took the short drive to Fort Dodge which is now a Kansas veteran's home and retains and uses some of the buildings from when it was an active military post.

The Custer House. Georgie never lived here but hey, it's only history, details details. Then there is the building next door. We will call it the building next door.

And the post office that I found unique.

Old Bent's Fort

In 1983, or maybe 84, I attended a four day "live-in" history program at Old Bent's Fort. Returning to the scene of the crime, so to speak, I relived my one time of eating liver, drinking a 1848 Madeira wine, and freezing my butt walking guard duty from 2-4 am in March on the Colorado plains. The park attempted to have us relive conditions "as was" in the late 1840s.

The liver came from a young cow buffalo (bison in modern language) that Sam Arnold, owner of The Fort restaurant (Morrison, CO), prepared in a way that I all but enjoyed it. The fact that we started work at 6 am and the first meal was at 10 am might have had something to do with it. Not that food is of much interest to me.

I was part of the craftsman group, blacksmithing and woodworking. One morning I got to play with a team of Belgian workhorses (that where they said they were from). If you see that as romantic go find a set of workhorse harnesses and carry them around for awhile being careful to not let the brutes step on your toes.

If you work hard you play hard, stands to reason. Under the cover is a pool table which was an oddity for the frontier. The other items in the room should require no explanation. One of the trappers was forced to take THE PLEDGE.

The fur press in the center of the courtyard.

The upper area. The room with the pool table is in the center. Other areas are quarters for officers (military and civilian) and guests.

There were three costumed interpreters on duty during our visit. They were very good but I remembered five of us in the shops, half a dozen trappers lounging in the sun, and three underappreciated people working in the kitchen. That was the participants. Many of the fort staff joined in including the site superintendent. It did not approach what was daily life in 1848 but it brought life to the place. On Sunday, they slaughtered chickens in the courtyard for our dinner.  Now that is history!

There were a couple of chickens there but they seemed to avoid me. These other characters did not seem as shy.

I kid you not it was COLD that night,

Last day in the Mountains

This is turn around time. We start the trek east tomorrow. The campgrounds we plan on are supposed to have good wifi and the first two stops, La Junta and Dodge City present subjects worthy of blog posts. Beyond that, who knows? It seems you don't have to hunt for "interesting" things, they seem to seek you out.

As a farewell expedition we drove the 15 miles or so along Embargo Creek to the Cathedral Campground (US Forest Service). Aside from chipmunks or similar creatures the wildlife amounted to a solitary cow who seemed very happy to be by herself. There were plenty of vistas but also other features of interest. I chose to see this as an old beaver dam. I suppose it could just be a place where stuff piled up but a beaver dam is more romantic.

Then there is the old trapper's cabin. OK, it might have been a line shack or a 1960s hippie back to the land experiment but trapper's cabin fits the beaver dam scenario and makes a better story.

I guess I am getting ahead of myself. Chapter One. It was a dark and stormy day. . .  .

Natural Arch and Penitente Canyon

A morning of relatively flat road driving, if you disregard the "washboard" of Colorado rural roads. If you can disregard it market the program you will make a fortune. Anyway, these two sites/sights are different than the usual arch and canyon. The Natural Arch is a hole in the wall and Penitente Canyon is a walk through rather than a drive.

Natural Arch

Penitente Canyon

If you are a movie fan walking through the canyon reminds you of the cliché line, "Good spot for an ambush."

If you are ambushed it might well be a missionary. Apparently there is a Catholic group who see the canyon as sacred and have left their mark.

Of course I have to have the wildlife pic of the day. This is the usual shot of a Pronghorn in the wild.

North end facing south. AND one scenery shot.

The Mountain Drive for the Family Car

The Bachelor Loop is the most promoted mountain drive in this area. From Creede, Colorado, the beginning is a bit steep and narrow but it improves, or so says the guidebook. I am not comfortable on mountain roads (heights) and that might be a good thing. I am not referring to highways with pavement and lines and guardrails and warning signs every fifty feet. What I mean is those dirt and rock things that, as Arlo Guthrie described, on one side mountain and on the other side cliff. Anyway, as I stopped to take a photo of the creek that the road was said to follow (creek was something between a waterfall and cascade). . . . .

a family car passed us, got stuck in a rut up ahead and, after getting free, passed us again going the other way heading for what civilization Creede might provide. Andy can take a hint and engaged four-wheel drive for the first time. Was it necessary? I can't say but I do believe it was prudent.

The "Loop" takes you past a bunch of old mines.

The road goes under the shed roof on the left side of the building. Moving along, another mine.

Dead mines to wild life.

AND, when above, at, or near, 10,000 feet the obligatory VISTA.

This was not on the "loop" but on a paved, sensible highway. Denise likes waterfalls.