July 2, 2018

Dodge City, Kansas to Beatrice,  (pronounced BeATtrice),Nebraska

Another hot day, and began our morning with a trolley tour of the town of Dodge City.   Ten of our hopped on a trolley bus and down around hearing about the history of the are starting with the Native Americans and the herds of millions of bison who roamed this area.  Then we moved into the buffalo hunters and the trains that came through the area.  Once the bison had been decimated, Dodge City took its places as the destination that the long cattle drives came from Texas to the railroads where the cattle could be shipped east. Those were Texas Long Horn cattle in those drives.  Now, the cattle in the feedlots were modern beef cattle.  Dodge City was at one point known as the Wicked Small Town in the West with so many saloons and gunfights.  Early in the 20th century, things had settled down and the town tried to put its wild west past behind it, only to find that tourists very much wanted to come to visit the town because of its wild west history. It became famous in TV and movies.  The tour included a stop at a feedlot and the old Fort Dodge. The air around the feedlot had a strong smell of cow manuer.  We might not like that smell but both of our farmer grandfathers said that was the "smell of money."  The tour was well done, and gave a great overview to the area.

After the tour, we went to the Boot Hill Museum. There we had a chance to walk around this reconstructed all the West town Filled with costumed characters and gunfights threatening to break out at any moment. We enjoyed rolling through the shops and chatting with the people, and reading more about the history of this town. As always, lots of interesting sites to take photos off. We were pleased that the museums were very professionally done and were full of many great artifacts from their history, as well as so fun props from the TV westerns. Both Dick and Patti remember watching Gunsmoke and it was fun to see where it all was filmed.

Where do we find these places, you might ask? Well, you got to do a lot of Google searches especially including the phrase "off the beaten path." We have made the drive often between California and Minnesota or Ohio, and have really come to understand that the middle of the country isn’t just a “fly over” or “drive by” stretch of countryside/ Instead, we have found there is a lot of history as well as places worth a stop during our drives.

After leaving Dodge City, we then had 4 Hour drive taking us out of Kansas into the state of Nebraska. There was settling in the town of Beatrice, ready to enjoy a visit to the Homestead National Monument of America just outside of town tomorrow.

Dinner was at a decent Mexican restaurant. We also had a great discussion with a busload of teenagers who were on a month-long trip learning about social movements and civil rights sites. They were being presented with opposing views of these issues.  Good thinkers in the group. We were pleased to meet and talk with these engaged, young people off to explore the country.  Go teens!