Days 50 through 54
We drove seventy-three miles with no one in front of us and no one behind us for as far as we could see. I know this because I kept track. We did have a few vehicles pass us coming from the other direction however.
We have not been on an Interstate Highway since we left Durango on Saturday morning and that is just fine with us.
What started out as an exercise in plotting the most direct way to get from Durango to St. Louis has turned into a game of …..
Interstate? Not Today!
In fact, our route from Page, Arizona to Durango lead us through the Navajo Indian Reservation, not using even one major highway, and complete with trading posts! I availed myself of their services and procured some nifty, authentic Native American Handiworks for the Grandkids in Boston.
What a way to see the Country! We have had our share of Interstate Travels and there is no faster way to get from here to there, but when (and if) you have the time, take that advice that we’ve all heard so many times…”Get off the Interstate!”
Well, we did just that, just in time for the snowstorm to hit us at Wolf Creek Pass which tops out at 10, 856’ of elevation and a 7% grade both leading up to it, and away from it. Remember good ol’ C.W. McCall of the song Convoy from back in the ‘70’s? Well, he even wrote a song about it!
Thankfully the roads just stayed wet as the snow accumulated on either side of the road. I’m quite sure that this meteorological event was the reason that there was nobody (almost) on the road with us. Being able to navigate up and down these mountain passes without fear of trucks either barreling down behind us or being stuck behind an even slower one ascending, helped make this experience a little less harrowing.
Once we hit level ground again, our pulses slowed down a little, but the snow did not! Just because we were level did not mean that we were that much lower. We were not still at almost 11,000’ of elevation but were still at close to 7000’ and that is plenty high enough for snow to be had at this time of year.
And we thought that we were done with this stuff when we made that big right turn in Montana and headed south!
When we finally left the snow behind we were headed east through the southeast corner of Colorado. This area has farm after (abandoned) farm with a few tiny towns interspersed between. Some of the scenes reminded me of Dust Bowl photos that I have only seen in books.
And, we had not even arrived in Kansas yet!
Our first real destination on this leg was the town of Dodge City.
Yes, that Dodge City.
Marshall Matt Dillon, Doc, and Miss Kitty were there at the Long Branch Saloon to greet us. There was an element of Gunsmoke that was based on fact and the Long Branch Saloon was one of them, as that is the real name of the saloon in Dodge City both back then and today. We entered the Boot Hill Museum not really knowing what to expect, but it had come highly recommended, so we gave it a try.
The place is really located on/next to the real Boot Hill. The cemetery part of Boot Hill was removed way back when the town fathers needed a place to put up a school, and since only the bad guys, Black Bart, the McAllister boys, and all of the other desperados were buried there, well, no one really cared, so they were re-planted somewhere else. Dust to Dust…..
Do you know why it was called Boot Hill?
It’s because when an unfortunate fellow got dispatched to meet his Maker, (usually by nefarious means) no one stopped to even remove his boots before he was admitted to this undesirable (for many reasons) section of town!
The Boot Hill Museum does an extremely fine job of not only documenting the past of Dodge City, but also of the life of a western town at that point in our history.
Back into the bus we climbed as our journey needed to continue. Our travels once again were all to ourselves as there was no one else on the road with us. Now we really felt like we were traveling in the Dust Bowl era, passing field after field of mostly wheat with those tiny burgs placed just far enough apart to give them a definite feeling of isolation.
Gigantic grain elevators dotted the horizon as did some windmills that were placed there just to scare us because we hate wind, and no one puts windmills in non-windy locations!
We are travelling from Walmart to Walmart, but we have altered our modus operandi to include a phone call to our prospective overnight host. So far we have been rebuffed only once! Our next destination is the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve just outside of Strong City, Kansas. Tallgrass once covered 170 million acres of our nations heartland, but then we all came along and needed driveways, and other essential (?) necessities, so there’s none left.
Except here.
Tomorrow, we (and you!) will experience what was once upon a time…..
