Roving Reports by Doug P: 2019-19 Kansas through the Oklahoma Panhandle to New Mexico

2019-19

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

Buffalo Bill Cody's North Platte Ranch

Repairs completed (3^rd 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 8^th 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.

Golden Spike Towera rail road enthusiast must stop

rail cars get sorted here 24 hrs a day

and train engines get serviced hear as well

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.

back of house was for servants

the word "show" never appeared
in any of Buffalo Bill's adds

and his wife, three children died young
only one survived beyond adult hood

inside the 4 story barn

the sod roofed log cabin belonged to Cody's good friends
and fellow ranchers

Buffalo Bill kept this ranch
even after moving and being
instrumental in building Cody Wyoming

Cody with daughter Irma

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.

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.

quite the site in the middle
of miles and miles of prairie

chalk formations from an ancient seabed

in the middle of a prairie landscape

about 6 miles of good dirt road driving

Distance Traveled: 131 miles

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.

an excellent museum for
such a small town

love all the historic photos

Kansas was once under 5 different flags

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...