Day 21- Liberty, KS - Dodge City, KS
82.3 official miles
4:53 time, 17.5 average
Well today brought us great rewards. We finally had a beautiful day where the winds were favorable. The ride was absolutely gorgeous riding through the Kansas Countryside. We rode, shot up the Dalton Gang, ate barbeque, drank beer in Dodge City, visited Boot Hill and danced a little with the fillies (well not the last one, but almost). We have been in the West for so long that we have resorted to calling our bikes our horses and when we leave the rest stops we usually say something like “saddle up men”. I guess when you spend as much time in the saddle as we have you have plenty of time to think up inane nonsensical stuff.
We left Liberal, Kansas this morning at 7:00 a.m. and headed to Dodge City. Along the way we passed through Kismet, Fowler and Mineola. Kismet has 489 people, but even Wikipedia and Google have very little information on the town. The countryside is exactly what you would expect Kansas to be. There is lots of wheat, some oil and rolling hills. We spoke to some farmers in Fowler and apparently they have had a dearth of rain otherwise known as a drought. Several related that they had turned the cattle into the wheat fields. It rained several inches the past few days when we had the storms with the East winds.
For lunch we had some excellent barbeque at Tim’s. It would probably sound better if his establishment was Chuck’s, or Bob’s or even Rastus’s, but I have to report the facts, not what I want something to be. And most of the time I do. I have enclosed a picture of Tim with his fine fare. Kansas seems to have fine barbeque everywhere we go. We also visited the Dalton gang’s hideout in Kansas where for several years they terrified the populace. In Coffeyville, Kansas the gang met their demise when they tried to rob two banks simultaneously. Four were killed, but somehow Emmett Dalton survived even though the he was seriously wounded with the doctor extracting 23 slugs from his body. He was pardoned after serving 14 years of his sentence and lived to the ripe old age of 66, old considering his youthful profession. Fortunately, only four of the ten Dalton brothers turned to crime. A small wonder considering that their mother was a Younger (remember their gang).
We also visited the Dodge City museum and Boot Hill. This is the Dodge of Wyatt Earp fame and in fact one of the men in Boot Hill was put there by Mr. Earp. The original Front Street burned in the late 1800’s, but three buildings still survive from the time period including the original jail where I am hamming it up. It didn’t seem to be a very good place to be incarcerated.
Tomorrow we head for Great Bend, Kansas which is approximately in the center of Kansas.
Signing off for another day.
