August 4, 2008
Leaving La Veta.
We decompressed.
We got our strength back.
We were inundated with historical, geographical, and social information.
We were spoiled with friendship and quality conversation.
We didn’t worry about where we were going to stay the night.
We didn’t think about what or where we were going to eat.
We did laundry.
We felt at home.
We didn’t want to leave.
Getting in the car was hard for Neil and me. But, after we wrangled the kids into their seats, they seemed surprisingly comfortable and ready to go. That honeymoon didn’t last long. Before long Eleni’s broken record of “I want to go home” was back again (and we didn’t press her whether she meant La Veta, Colorado or the blue house back in Madison).
The change in terrain as we headed east was dramatic; we went from rocky to flat and flat and flat and more flat.
Somewhere along the way, we followed the Santa Fe Trail backwards and tried to imagine how the flatness might drive one slowly insane. Today, we at least had old rusted out cars and trucks, vacant hotel rooms, irrigation machines, and John Deere tractors heading straight for us on the two-lane road, whereas then, they had the flatness.
Neil and Alex went here on my relatives' recommendation. They did not come out with the anticipated cowboy boots!
While Eleni slept, I sat in the parking lot and took photos of cars
We called our neighbor’s parents who live in Dodge City, Kansas. We thought we would dutifully say hello and stop in for tea or something simple. I guess we underestimated mid-west hospitality because Lou, our neighbor’s father said, “We’ll expect you for dinner and you are invited to stay with us.”
“Well, I’ll talk to talk it over with my husband” I replied.
“If you want to pay $130 for a hotel room, well that is all right, but you are welcome to stay with us. I don’t think you need to talk it over.”
Well that settled that. Now we just had to figure out how to get to Dodge City ASAP. That took a while.
“Well, I’ll talk to talk it over with my husband” I replied.
“If you want to pay $130 for a hotel room, well that is all right, but you are welcome to stay with us. I don’t think you need to talk it over.”
Well that settled that. Now we just had to figure out how to get to Dodge City ASAP. That took a while.
A cattle car which we'll talk more about later
Kansas is the 5th most oil producing state in the States
Haystacks that looked like loaves of bread
We listened to The Wizard of Oz on audiotape. Dorothy’s predicament went to our heads as every dust storm on the horizon begged the question, “Is that a tornado?” We drove parallel with a thunderstorm that you can see in this photo - but we never felt a drop of rain.
The elevators and stockyards
More on this later, too.
Flat.
Ruts! We found some! Nine miles west of Dodge City, there are some authentic, over one hundred years old (at least!) Santa Fe ruts!
Lou and Judith were waiting for us at their door! We bundled out of the car and the kids hopped into their water tub outside.
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