2019-19
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| Grain Elevators every couple of miles Nebraska and Kansas (the Cathedrals of the Prairie) (PS, no those are not my tire marks screeching to a halt to get this shot) |
Kearney, Nebraska
North Platte,
Nebraska
Oakley, Kansas
Ulysses, Kansas
Liberal Kansas (just
to pick up meds at Walgreens)
Panhandle of
Oklahoma
New Mexico, Clayton
Campground: Cody
City Park. $5.00. paved pad, no hookups. Water and dump station
available. And restrooms. Large city park, campsites are net to a
double fenced in pond where they have large animals/zoo type
operation. Deer, a couple elk, and a half dozen buffalo. All in
relatively close quarters. Most of the park is for humans.
Campground: Kansas
Country Inn, Oakley. $21.50 + tax. Full hookups on side of parking
lot. Rut filled dirt lanes between well defined camper utilities.
Swimming pool, very nice. Free breakfast for motel guests only (they
pay $75 a night)
Campground: Frazier
park, Ulysses Kansas. It’s part of their community golf course so
if anyone plays golf, this would be the place to be. $15 full
hookups, 30/50 amp service. A couple over the air TV stations and
excellent Verizon signal.
Campground: Clayton
State Park, Clayton NM. $14.00 30 amp electric and water. Remote
NE corner of New Mexico. A favorite location. Dinosaur tracks!
Distance Traveled: 158 miles
North Platte Nebraska
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| Buffalo Bill Cody's North Platte Ranch |
Repairs completed
(3rd time). So of course I had time to see the few sites
worth seeing in North Platte, NE. That being the Golden Spike Tower
and Visitor Center and Buffalo Bill Cody’s Ranch. The Tower
overlooks the world’s largest classification rail-yard and should
be on any train enthusiast’s bucket list. It’s a very active
rail yard where trains arrive 24 hours a day, the cars are sorted for
their journey east via an automated Hump rail sorting set of tracks.
The yard covers 2,850 acres, managing 10,000 cars daily, of those
3,000 require sorting. The views of the active rail yard from the
8th floor of the viewing tower are well worth the couple
of dollars elevator ride to the top. Did you know that a diesel
engine train isn’t actually propelled by the diesel engine? The
diesel engine is used to produce electricity which then is used to
run the electric motors which move the train. The rail yard is owned
by the Union Pacific.
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| Golden Spike Towera rail road enthusiast must stop |
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| rail cars get sorted here 24 hrs a day |
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| and train engines get serviced hear as well |
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| great viewing spot from the tower |
This has been an
adventure in discovering all the places Buffalo Bill Cody has lived.
In North Platte, you’ll find the Buffalo Bill State Park, Scout’s
Rest Ranch. The ranch originally covered 4,000 acres. I was able to
tour the 1886 Empire mansion which cost $3,900 to build back then.
The 4 story huge red barn and out buildings including a sod covered
log cabin. Buffalo Bill Cody lived in the era when the wild west was
being tamed. He was an Army scout, buffalo hunter, and eventually an
entertainer, providing historic representations of a fast vanishing
cowboy way of life. His Wild West Show’s were seen throughout
Europe and America and included famous people including Sitting Bull
and Annie Oakley. He saw the trains arrival out west, the automobile,
telegraph, all quickly replacing a wild west way of life. It’s a
great site to learn more about Buffalo Bill.
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| back of house was for servants |
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| the word "show" never appeared in any of Buffalo Bill's adds |
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| and his wife, three children died young only one survived beyond adult hood |
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| inside the 4 story barn |
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| the sod roofed log cabin belonged to Cody's good friends and fellow ranchers |
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| Buffalo Bill kept this ranch even after moving and being instrumental in building Cody Wyoming |
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| Cody with daughter Irma |
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| Cody lived large, spent large leaving very little upon his death.... |
Down at my next
stop, Oakley Kansas, I’m in the small prairie town where the legend
of Buffalo Bill started. Here he was a contract buffalo hunter
feeding the crews laying tracks across Kansas. Another person
William Comstock was also being referred to as Buffalo Bill. To
settle who should have the title, they had a contest to see who could
kill the most buffalo in a day. Folks came from all around to watch
the show. Cody of won the title.
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| the larger than life bronze statue marks the spot |
About 30 minutes
south of Oakley surrounded by miles and miles of flat prairie is
Monument Rocks formation. Filled with fossils from an ancient
shallow sea. The ride through a mix of natural prairie, dry farm
crops of withered corn stalks and cattle ranches, I turned east onto
a dirt road. Leading further into the rugged country for about 6
miles. The rock formations with interesting shapes and arches rise
out of the flat land. A fun day trip. Only two other vehicles early
in the morning. One, drove around the rock structures as the wife
took pictures out the car window. The other vehicle, a younger
couple got out and walked around as I had. So much more enjoyable to
walk around the structures and get a feeling for their size and shear
beauty of the area.
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| quite the site in the middle of miles and miles of prairie |
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| chalk formations from an ancient seabed |
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| in the middle of a prairie landscape |
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| about 6 miles of good dirt road driving |
Distance Traveled:
131 miles
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| many grain elevators and lots of petroleum/gas wells |
I’m heading
south/west towards New Mexico and found a little place called Ulysses
Kansas with a very nice campground/park and golf course. Lots of
farming, large grain elevators in-town and a few Mexican restaurants.
There appears to be a large Spanish speaking population as well.
Many folks may think that Spanish is only spoken in the southern U.S.
but I can assure you, many of the small communities throughout the
U.S. contain many Spanish speaking communities. Where ever there is
a need for cheap labor. They are hard workers and fill a huge need.
Did I mention the
wind. Lots of windy days recently. Needless to say, my fuel mileage
has decreased dramatically. The open prairie may be nice, but this
particular area of the country also has to deal with the wind. We’re
talking average winds in the 35-45 mph range.
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| an excellent museum for such a small town |
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| love all the historic photos |
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| Kansas was once under 5 different flags |
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| great exhibit of all the local ranchers |
Distance Traveled:
240 miles
What a day. I
headed back east then south to Liberal Kansas just to pick up meds
from the only Walgreen's close by. About 60 miles. Then with a bit
of back tracking I drove SW into the panhandle of Oklahoma. With
plans to stay at a state park in the very western region of the
panhandle. All good intentions being what they are, I drove along hwy
56 and eventually hwy 412. Now these are truly two lane county
roads. Black strips of asphalt creating a straight line across wild
prairie. Dotted with 3 and 5 thousand acres farms and ranches.
Now I had multiple
options to stop along the way for camping including Liberal, Hugoton,
Elkhart, Keyes and the a fore mentioned Black Mesa State Park and
Nature Preserve. Plan A, Black Mesa almost worked out. Got there
and almost set up, but looked at the post and saw the site was
reserved for the following day. Checked out a few others and
realized most of the park was reserved for the coming weekend. Yes
there were a couple site open, so I drove back towards the entrance
to check out a couple sites lined up against a rock wall. Darn, they
were reserved. Well, that’s ok, I can find a place to turn around
and come back to the previous sites that were still open.
Do you think that’s
what happened. As I continued towards the entrance to the State
park, I couldn’t find a turn around. Not at the entrance, not back
up the road a mile or two or three or four. Yup, I ended up heading
the 30 minutes back into the Boise City. Only found one campground.
Pulled over to check it out. Wish I had gotten a picture of it. As
I pulled up to the building, which would have made a great backdrop
for an abandoned town scene, except for the large plastic sheet
advertising the new park and a couple phone numbers to call. The
sites were all empty except for one older camper. Called the number
and was told, sure they’d have someone down in minutes to collect
my $35 or $45 for the dirt campsite. My choice, 30 or 50amp among
trees or over in an orderly row of electric posts in dark brown dirt.
I didn’t stay.
Since I’d had
lunch, wasn’t going to drive the 30 minutes back to the state park,
I called ahead to Clayton Lake St Pk in New Mexico and an hour later,
I was there and set up in a pretty if remote state park. And at $14
a night, you know I was a happy camper. Yes it was about 4 o'clock.
Much more driving than I usually do in one day, but it all worked out
fine in the end.
Happy to be
officially out west in the 4 Corner region once again. Some journeys are short, some are long, but all are filled with some kind of adventure...
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| Collections, things... One man collected souvenir pencils on all his business trips yes, your collections could end up in a museum too |
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