Dodge City (Thursday)

Well, it is winter here again.  It was 34 when we went to bed last night, with a chill factor of 25.  Temperature had dropped 54 degrees in Liberal from the day before, and 45 degrees here in Dodge.  And we had a smattering of snow greet us.  Joe almost missed it because he wouldn't get out of bed, and it was melting away pretty quickly.  When I did the laundry in Liberal when it was 92 degrees, I thought I was putting away the jeans and sweatshirts for the season, but we got them right back out yesterday, and I dug our sock caps out today, along with our heavy coats.

Here's a picture of the grain elevators I mentioned in yesterday's blog that would block the wind when we drove past.  There were several of these right along the highway, which were also alongside the railroad tracks.  We heard on the news tonight that this year's projected wheat harvest for the state of Kansas is 313 million bushels, so I guess that would take a lot of grain elevators.

As we drove into Dodge City yesterday, we were greeted by El Capitan, a bronze statute commemorating the 1870s/1880s Texas cattle drives to Dodge City.  Coming into town from the other direction is another pretty interesting sign.  There are a lot of these artistic kinds of signs around town, called "pole art banners."

Whenever we are at home and Joe remembers, he watches Gunsmoke at noon on ME TV.  So he was happy to be here, and I think he really expected to run into Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke Street.  We also drove up and down Wyatt Earp Blvd. several times but didn't see him either.  There have been so many movies made about the real historical people who lived here, such as Wyatt Earp,  Bat Masterson and Doc Holiday, that we almost forgot Matt Dillon wasn't a real person here. 

We went into the Boot Hill Museum, which was very nice, and then out the back door to Boot Hill Cemetery.  The people buried here usually had no family and no money, and were buried with their boots on, that's how it got its name.  One gravestone had the same name as an old Indiana friend/classmate of ours, Ed Williams, so we will have to show that to him sometime.

We stopped in the jail, then headed down to the Long Branch Saloon, where Joe shared a sasparillo with me.

These buildings on Front Street were all connected, so we were able to continue on from the saloon without going back outside into the cold weather.  There were probably 8 different businesses represented, including a pharmacy/doctor's office, a shoe cobbler, printing company, undertaker, bank, to name a few.

There was also a display of baby carriages and basinettes.  I thought Bridgette might be interested in this stroller as a jogging stroller for Shooter.

Other buildings right here were a gunsmith, a school, and a church.  This area was set up nicely, and in the summer they have gunfights and other events, and in the saloon there is a variety show (with Miss Kitty) at night.

We finished up here and headed to the outskirts of town in search of one of two small herds of longhorns.  Fortunately, they were within sight of the road.  We later found the second herd on the other side of town.

Next, we headed south of town on Hwy 400 to Fort Dodge, which served as a supply depot and base of operation against warring Indians from 1865-1882.  It is now a Kansas Soldiers' Home.  The third picture was a structure across the road and I thought it looked more like a fort, but we couldn't find any identification on it and it was fenced off.

Just a couple miles further down this road was the Coronado Cross.  Standing 38' tall, it marks the spot where Francisco Vasques de Coronado, a Spanish explorer, is said to have crossed the Arkansas River in search of the fabled "Cities of Gold" in 1541.  We drove around looking for the Arkansas River and realized we had crossed it yesterday as we came into town, but it didn't have any water in it so we didn't realize that was it.

The only wildlife we saw today was a rabbit, which I thought looked different from our usual, and maybe was a snowshoe hare, but Joe thought it was just a jackrabbit.

 We were done exploring at this point, so Joe kindly stopped at the Boot Hill Casino so we could check it out.  Unlike most other casinos, this one is owned by the state instead of an Indian tribe.  But, unfortunately, those slots were not any looser than the Indian ones.  This is actually next door to United Wireless Arena, a sports complex, and we can see this from our campground.

After a stop at Walmart to pick up a few groceries, we headed back to the RV to rest for a while.  We decided Dodge City would probably be a good place to have a nice steak dinner since we are in cattle country, so that's how we finished our visit here -- a rib-eye for Joe and a filet mignon for me at Casey's Cowtown Club.  Both were delicious.

 It remained in the 40s all day here, but the wind finally quieted down just before sunset, so when we got back from dinner Joe did his maintenance (dumping the tanks and hooking up the car) so he doesn't have much to do outside in the morning when it will again be freezing.  Tomorrow, we are "gettin' out of Dodge."