Changing Gears: Rey's Ride Across America

July 6th — Rest Day in Scott City, KS — We drove down to Dodge City to see if we could see any remnants of the Old West. Not much remains of old Dodge City, but they did have a small piece of the old town on "Boot Hill" where some of the buildings still remain. The city has a statue of Wyatt Earp in town near Front Street and a lot of businesses in town include Wyatt or Doc Holiday in their company names. There were railroad tracks running along Front Street where it is said that the law was enforced on the north side of the tracks, but on the south side lawlessness and anything goes was common in those days.

Still, it was pretty cool to see the remains of Ft. Dodge, which protected the Santa Fe Trail back in the 1800s. On a tour of the city, we passed by a huge cattle feeding ground with 45,000 head of cattle. Seeing so many cattle in one place, I couldn't help imagine that maybe that's what buffalo might have looked like (yeah, I know buffalo look much different) in herds to the hunters or the Indians long ago. There is a good chance that if you like steak, the last one you ate could have come from a Kansas beef producer. Kansas is the second largest beef producer in the nation and has the largest concentration of beef packing plants, one of which was located right next to the feed lot that held all those cattle. It was a good rest day, but my mind is back on the road for tomorrow's route.