Day 5 - Kansas to Colorado

We're not in Kansas anymore...

I tried to post a blog this morning, but the second I hit post I lost internet connection - and everything I had typed. So - let's try again.

We woke up to an absolutely beautiful morning. It wasn't cold - wasn't hot - and it was sunny (sorry PA folks - I know you didn't need to hear that). We drove from Salina, Kansas to Fort Larned - also in Kansas.

Fort Larned was a post built to protect the traders and travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. We watched a 10 minute movie in the visitor's center - and by the time it ended I had decided I really did not want to see the place. However, since we were there, we went ahead and walked around. I stepped in one of the old ruts from the trail - and sank up to mid-shin. At that exact moment I was having a lot of inner conflict. Part of me was thinking "how cool that you can step exactly where those wagons rolled over years ago" and the other part was thinking about the movie and how it portrayed the Sand Creek massacre and other parts of the "Indian Wars". As I was standing in the rut, I was wondering what tribe lived here on the Pawnee River before those wagons rolled through. I was picturing the buffalo dotting the prairie hills. It was such a pensive moment. By the time we left the fort I decided I really didn't like it.

We drove from the fort along the Santa Fe Trail to Dodge City, Kansas. We were looking forward to seeing Dodge City. After seeing - I wonder why we were looking forward to it. The best thing - well - 2 things - about the city were 1 - an incredible steak lunch at Casey's Cowtown Steakhouse and 2 - the People of the Plains museum. The lunch was the best steak I'd ever had. The museum was an amazing display of the native people of the plains. They even had a place where they showed buffalo roaming on the plains and the floor underneath you vibrating like the ground would have as the herd ran by. It was a very accurate and fair portrayal of the peaceful tribes of the area. MUCH more appropriate than Fort Larned.

After Dodge City we were supposed to go to another fort in La Junta - but after how disturbed I was by Fort Larned, we decided to pass on the La Junta fort. We started driving on Highway 50 towards Colorado Springs. We watched another beautiful sunset, laughed at what Kansas and Colorado call "interstates" and saw some deer and an eagle. It was a good trip.

We got word that they were calling for a few inches of snow in Colorado Springs. I'm telling you - we did not see a single FLURRY until we reached the Colorado Springs line. There was a dusting of snow on the ground and the roads were a little slick - but it was NOTHING! It did make the view of the mountains absolutely beautiful with all of the snow covered peaks.

Time to unload the car and put the boys to bed. More tomorrow.