Get the Heck Into Dodge!!!!

Thursday evening we pulled into the Gunsmoke Trav-L Park in Dodge City, KS.  It was a fun place, with the lanes all named after Gunsmoke characters. We are on Doc’s Boulevard.

We had nice weather for grilling, so we took advantage.

Friday we headed into Dodge City, to the Boot Hill Museum.

It was great learning about this historical town.  All the shoot ’em up stories from the movies really happened here!  And, these aren’t just store fronts — we were able to go inside each of them, and at the saloon we could actually get drinks!  Minnie Mouse had a Sarsaparilla Soda that she thought was fabulous!  At the end of the tour, these two were having some fun of their own:

We headed out to Harriet by way of the gift shop, but before we left, Minnie Mouse found this, and couldn’t resist!

We got the heck out of Dodge, and headed south in some very intense wind.  As we drove, I just could not get over the clouds.  I think it might be true that the sky is bigger out here in the west.

We headed to Elkhart, KS and the Cimarron National Grasslands.  The Santa Fe Trail goes through the grasslands, and much of this area has been undisturbed, which means that other than trees falling and new growth, it is the same as it was almost 150 years ago when pioneers traveled the trail out west.  It was unbelievable and beautiful.  We went to several stops.  The first one was the 3rd highest point in Kansas called Point of Rocks.  Vence and Minnie Mouse climbed down the side of plateau, while I stayed on top.

We then went to Middle Springs, where we were able to walk on the actual Santa Fe Trail.

We set up camp there in the grasslands at a little camp area, and Vence couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get his bike out and free-ride in that open land.

A funny side note here is that the next evening he was sitting with pliers picking cactus needles out of his flat tires!  But, he had a good time anyway!  We had a beautiful view of the sunset over the prairie as we closed out our evening. See you at the next stop!