Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.... Tuesday 24th October...

Our neighbours at Gunsmoke RV Park....
It's a cold gusty windy morning and Yorkieman has his work cut out on our drive today as we "get the heck out of Dodge" and hit the road once more....

From Dodge City we strike out south west across The Plains to Amarillo and yes we do know the way as it will be our third visit !!!! This time, however,  we are travelling a more "country" route route to get there....

Just added this pic as it does make us smile we are doing 3 mph below the speed limit of 65 and this big"oversized load" truck passes us !!!

Not a terribly clear pic of this grey hawk but taken as we drive along....we have had the pleasure of seeing so many birds of prey and hawks in the past few weeks....plenty of mice etc for them to feed on in the corn fields...

As mentioned before we are travelling through states that produce huge quantities of field corn.....the grain is piled into mounds and covered ready for feed etc....

Called The Samson of Cimarron, this bridge with a span of 1269 ft was built in 1939 and considered an engineering marvel of it's day....it was built to divert the railroad from the floodplain of the Cimarron River but rang the death knell for the town of Arkalon who were no longer on the railroad route...

On these quiet country roads it's navigation by silos at each small community....we find it fascinating and not at all boring...

Todays journey takes us from Kansas through the panhandle of Oklahoma and into Texas...
Not pretty at times but it is what it is and interesting.....

Yorkieman is again on cruise control....

This area of Texas is a large supplier of helium found in the natural gas fields...

The evening sky at a favourite RV Park of ours in Amarillo....
We are staying here for 3 days to do some much needed cleaning inside and out !!!
It's still very windy but then it always is in Amarillo....slide-outs are in again on our second night when the wind increases, also advised by the office to disconnect the water pipes as temps set to go to freezing....Yorkieman is more than ready to head south...
More soon from..
The Windswept but Happy Campers...

Kansas...Dodge City....20th to 23rd October 2017

Today we cross over the Missouri River and enter Kansas for the first time and another tick in the box for states visited...
The nickname for Kansas is the Sunflower State which we learn grow wild here...

Similar to Nebraska and Iowa, Kansas is very agricultural as well as having a very large cattle industry....
At one rest area we learn that this Flint Hills area of Kansas is renown for fertile grazing land for cattle....the old saying is that The Texans send the horns up to Kansas and Kansas grazing puts the body on them !!!

I've added this pic of our home on wheels at Chapman RV Park, Chapman, Kansas to show the tree bending in the wind !!! We brought in the slides overnight to be more streamline and to protect the slide toppers from the strong gusty wind....but although windy it was very nicely warm...

Saturday 21st October...
We are once more heading west along the I-70 from Chapman to the I-35 south to Dodge City....
The combines lined up ready for the days work...

This is "milo"and there are acres and acres of it....it's another type of cereal corn and a major feed grain for cattle....
Driving along in the sunshine it has taken on a lovely copper colour....
We also drive past a huge underground storage area at Conway....discovered later it is storage for petroleum products, gas, propane etc etc...

We love the way these poles are leaning just like in the old movies....
Kansas is a very windy state and now has a growing number of wind turbine farms...we pass several  and one in the process of being built...

Welcome to Dodge City....
Our song for today suggested by our niece Claire...
Kings of The Wild Frontiers...Adam and the Ants...

We had to stay at The Gunsmoke RV Park having lived through the years of Gunsmoke on TV....and it turns out to be a really great park with lovely owners....
Our site is in Matt Dillion Drive...

Office and buildings at the Gunsmoke RV Park....

Sunday 22nd October...
Yorkieman enjoying a dram wth Doc Holliday....

Yay....I'm happy...
You might notice the that we are wrapped up warmly this morning but by this afternoon although not shorts weather it is short sleeves and nicely warm....

Some of the restored buildings at the Boot Hill Museum......

We walk most of the self guided walking tour...

Wyatt Earp.....
As well as being historic Dodge is also very industrial due in part to the railroad and agriculture....a feature of The Plains is the huge silos....

We have enjoyed our stay in Dodge City...
But it's time now "To Get the Heck Out of Dodge" !!!!
Tomorrow move on once more...
Until the next time it's bye for now from..
Mr Dillion and Miss Kitty...

Kellogg, Iowa and St Joseph, Missouri...17th to 19th October...

It's a beautiful morning as we hitch up and head out from Kellogg and say farewell to Iowa and hello Missouri...229 miles today mainly on Interstate 35...
The road surface on this stretch of the I-35 south is for some reason pink, we have no idea why but it's smooth and quiet with excellent rest areas approx every 30 miles and historical information boards. 
We are still very much in the area of the western migration routes...

Love this vintage car...such a shame that I couldn't get a shot of the front of it as we passed...

We crossed the state line into Missouri in time for our lunch sandwich at the Welcome Centre...

This and next pic not too bad for a quick shot through the windscreen of a "flock" of blackbirds...

Almost a heart....

Naughty me another water-tower ! and just a few miles from our home for the next 3 nights at the AOK Campground, St Joseph Missouri....
We had planned a 2 night stop but on checking in we discovered that St Joseph has a lot of museums and historic buildings as well as a nature centre and walk along the Missouri River...

St Joseph was the starting point of short lived Pony Express....mail and newspapers were delivered the 1,900 miles from St Joseph to Sacramento, California in 10 days...
They employed only young men (no older than 18) who were excellent horsemen and prepared to face death daily...
With the coming of the transcontinental telegraph the Pony Express was forced to cease business in October 1861 after just 18 months....
St Joe as it's called locally was also a major stopping off point for the western migration routes before crossing the Missouri River and months of possible hardship....

We didn't discover why there are these amazing murals on some of the large buildings...

Most of these buildings were built in the mid to late 1800's....

There are also very clever sculptures dotted around the city...this one is made of spoons !!

"Mulligan" a sculpture for you golfers...

The highlight though today is the Patee House Museum originally a 140 room luxury hotel built by John Patee in 1855......
It has since been a female college, a epileptic sanitarium and a clothing factory and since 1965 a museum...
It is huge....we spent a very pleasant 2 hours ambling through history....

An annex has been built onto the Patee House to house a working carousel....all hand made of wood very similar to the one we saw in Kellogg, Minnesota last year....

Incredible workmanship...

And of course my favourite exhibit a full sized locomotive....

Incredible to imagine the early settlers crossing these vast plains and mountainous areas in these small wagons....we have high respect for their tenacity....

After our lunch sandwich overlooking the Missouri River we head out along the river walk, an easy 2 mile walk along a paved walkway....
This pic shows why it is called The Big Muddy....

The railroad also runs close to the river and as I sit here typing up our blog entries in Dodge City  a few days later (the railroad runs not far from our RV Park) on cue there's the railroad whistle....I might have said many times that I love the sound...

This tree is at the RV Park and we discover from Dale the park owner that  it's approx 300 years old and is an Indian Marker Tree.....the marker trees were used to guide The Native Americans to a good campsites source of water or a good place to cross a river....young samplings were pinned down using an animal hide/thong, hence the name "thong" trees....
We have really enjoyed our stay in St Joseph but tomorrow we move on across the Great Plains crossing the Missouri River and into Kansas and another "new" state for us.....
Until the next post it's bye for now from...
The more "knowledgable" Campers...