Trip Report: The Perfect Family Trip!
EDIT: I wanted to add this link here at the beginning. Ragusa's Summer 2014 Trailer Hello friends! We have been home for two months, but I am just now feeling like getting to the trip repo...
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The Road Home: Part 1
We began the long, sad drive home. We came down out of the Rockies through the outskirts of Denver and took a diagonal (southeasterly) route on our way over to Wichita, Ks. to stay a night or two with my sister in law.
Eastern Colorado and Kansas were everything I was told they would be. NOTHING! However, as long as the drive was, we were equally exhausted, and a day or two in the truck was welcomed.
We stumbled into a NHS, the Sand Creek Massacre. Stopped for just a bit. Got a quick (and sad) history lesson and got back to driving.
We came across a facility that manufactured the huge windmills we had been seeing in the plains.
A quick story. Kansas was jam packed with railroads and beef cattle. Before we knew what it was, we could see a cloud miles ahead, as if there were smoke from a fire. As we approached, we discovered it was tens of thousands of head of cattle all penned close to the roadside. My wife, being the videographer she is, decided to open the truck window and get a better shot. When the window opened, the vacuum sucked in the most ammonia ridden, foulest smell and disgust that you'd ever imagine! She quickly put it back up, but it was too late...cow "stuff" was already in the cabin, and that new car smell we had enjoyed was gone forever.
We made it into Dodge City that first night.
It was a longer days drive than we thought. We didn't have a reservation anywhere, so we looked up some of the cheaper options. The first one we went to was in an old part of town sort of nestled into a run down trailer park. It took us 30 seconds to turn around and go back to the more expensive RV park on the main road. We had a safe spot for the night, and enjoyed some TV!
The next morning, we spend a half day in Dodge City. Saw Boot Hill and walked the walk of fame downtown.
The boys learned to rope cattle...
The smarter 3/4 of the family took pictures with Wyatt Earp.
While the not as smart went to all the wrong places looking for lunch...
We left town about noon and drove in to Wichita. We set up in my sister and brother in laws driveway and enjoyed the company and "real house" accommodations that we had missed so much.
They took us around town. My BIL works for Boeing and he took us to see McConnell, and the "Keeper of the Plains".
I can't say this without hurting someone's feelings, but why anyone would chose to live in this area is beyond me. It seemed that you were at least a 10 hour drive from anything remotely interesting.
We began the long, sad drive home. We came down out of the Rockies through the outskirts of Denver and took a diagonal (southeasterly) route on our way over to Wichita, Ks. to stay a night or two with my sister in law.
Eastern Colorado and Kansas were everything I was told they would be. NOTHING! However, as long as the drive was, we were equally exhausted, and a day or two in the truck was welcomed.
We stumbled into a NHS, the Sand Creek Massacre. Stopped for just a bit. Got a quick (and sad) history lesson and got back to driving.
We came across a facility that manufactured the huge windmills we had been seeing in the plains.
A quick story. Kansas was jam packed with railroads and beef cattle. Before we knew what it was, we could see a cloud miles ahead, as if there were smoke from a fire. As we approached, we discovered it was tens of thousands of head of cattle all penned close to the roadside. My wife, being the videographer she is, decided to open the truck window and get a better shot. When the window opened, the vacuum sucked in the most ammonia ridden, foulest smell and disgust that you'd ever imagine! She quickly put it back up, but it was too late...cow "stuff" was already in the cabin, and that new car smell we had enjoyed was gone forever.
We made it into Dodge City that first night.
It was a longer days drive than we thought. We didn't have a reservation anywhere, so we looked up some of the cheaper options. The first one we went to was in an old part of town sort of nestled into a run down trailer park. It took us 30 seconds to turn around and go back to the more expensive RV park on the main road. We had a safe spot for the night, and enjoyed some TV!
The next morning, we spend a half day in Dodge City. Saw Boot Hill and walked the walk of fame downtown.
The boys learned to rope cattle...
The smarter 3/4 of the family took pictures with Wyatt Earp.
While the not as smart went to all the wrong places looking for lunch...
We left town about noon and drove in to Wichita. We set up in my sister and brother in laws driveway and enjoyed the company and "real house" accommodations that we had missed so much.
They took us around town. My BIL works for Boeing and he took us to see McConnell, and the "Keeper of the Plains".
I can't say this without hurting someone's feelings, but why anyone would chose to live in this area is beyond me. It seemed that you were at least a 10 hour drive from anything remotely interesting.