Tuesday, April 12
Stayed at the Best Western in Great Bend, KS, last night. On the way, I was searching for hotels on my
phone…there were maybe 8 listed and the cost didn’t vary too much, so I started
reading the reviews so we could make a more educated decision. The hotel in Trinidad taught us that. Majority of the reviews warned the weary
traveler away from that particular hotel and toward Best Western. Best Western was getting some good
advertising because the experiences at the other hotels were less than
stellar…and most of those reviews were about other chain hotels, not the little
independent ones. Anyway, didn’t take
much persuading to stop at Best Western to get a room. J
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The farmland is
active at this point…there’s plowing, planting, irrigating and even some
growing. I mentioned how far ahead the
Kansas growing season is from ours. Then
Kim wondered what parallel we might be on now
since we were up near the 45th.
That prompted a discussion of parallels, the equator, North/South poles
and involved some math. Who says a long
drive has to be boring? J
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Yesterday, on a
section of Hwy 160 in Colorado, we drove through a section of the Comanche
National Grasslands. Got to wondering what the designation of National
Grassland means. I looked on Google and
Wikipedia gave me the scoop, which I read to Kim: National Grassland
is a classification of protected and managed federal lands in the United States
authorized by Title III of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act of 1937. For
administrative purposes, they are essentially identical to United States
National Forests, except that grasslands areas primarily consisting of
prairie. Like National Forests, National
Grasslands may be open for hunting, grazing, mineral extraction, recreation and
other uses. Various National Grasslands
are typically administered in conjunction with nearby National Forests.
The catastrophic Dust Bowl of the 1930s led
to the creation of the Soil Conservation Service in 1933. This and subsequent federal laws paved the
way for establishing national grasslands.
That led Kim to
say he wanted to hear more about the Dust Bowl, so I googled it and spent most
of the next half hour reading….out loud. J
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Seemed like most
of Kansas was on fire today. First
noticed a plume of smoke out to the southeast and hoped it wasn’t a
wildfire. Kim brought my attention to
several more smoke plumes out to the northeast and mentioned that he thought it
might be a controlled burn of grass, as we were driving along sections of
burned fields. Then, it seemed there was
smoke everywhere on the horizon….and more blackened fields, some with new green
growth already. We eventually passed a
burn happening alongside the road, complete with flames and I was amazed that
there weren’t more people supervising or firetrucks available or whatever is
needed to make sure it didn’t burn something more than grass. Kim explained how to control a burn like that
with minimal help…make sure it’s not too dry, check wind direction, establish a
burn line, direct the burn toward the line, etc. And today was probably a good day because of
the amount of rain that fell over the last couple of days. Yep, Kansas was on fire today!!
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Near Strong
City, KS, we passed a sign for the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve…I wanted
to check it out. Because spring has a
hold on Kansas already, I figured the grass would be growing and it would be
fun to see just how tall it was. Wrong!! Spring hasn’t touched the grass yet….still
dried up and bent over from winter. After
watching a short video about the history and current management of the
tallgrass prairie, we went for a walk…the weather was warm, there was a walking
path into the prairie and there was still plenty to see. We walked about ½ mile to just beyond a ridge
where the preserve’s buffalo herd roam.
Took plenty of pictures, then headed back. When we got to the truck, Kim asked me to
google the nps.gov site to see what it had to say about the buffalo. Didn’t find anything specific about them, but
I did find this under the FAQs:
Q: Where is all the tall grass?
A: It is a common
misconception that one will see an entire prairie of six feet tall greases
blowing in the wind at any time of the year.
In the spring the grasses will not have reached their full height; they
are just beginning to grow. It takes
nature an entire season to grow the prairie grasses. Think of “tall in the fall”. The tallest grasses grow in the bottomland
areas where water is more readily available and the soils are deeper. The grasses on the prairie uplands will
generally grow between three and five feet high.
So apparently
I’m not the only one who thought the tallgrass would be tall. J
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As it turns out,
the preserve was having a ‘prescribed burn’ so there was smoke in the air. A woman was coming out of the Visitor Center
as we were approaching. She said to be
sure to watch the video inside because with the burn and the smoke and that’s
when the monologue started (my attempt to join in is in black): Well, here…let me show you…I took a picture of the smoke. Oh, darn, I don’t know where it is. Well, that’s not what I was looking for, I
don’t know what I’m do….that’s my house.
Maybe I never should have left my house.
I started on this big trip and have had nothing but bad luck. I had to drive all that rain in
Indianapolis, so I got past that and my car breaks down. Turned out to be the water pump. It was not a cheap fix…see I have the receipt
right here. Maybe I shouldn’t have…but
whaddaya gonna do?….well, it would have happened at some point anyway. My
friend told me to take my van, to just get on the road. Yeah, our truck broke down in…. Well, I was hoping to
see some spring but I haven’t seen anything like that. I think I’m heading up
to 35, maybe there’ll be some green up there.
I’m from Pennsylvania and well, it’s been crazy weather there. Well, if you head west along 50, there
is gre….. Is there?
Well, that’s good to know. Yeah, we just came from that way. Well, maybe I should
flip a coin on what route to take, although it might not have worked so well
for me when deciding when to take this trip.
I don’t know, maybe I should have waited ‘til May. I wanted to take a
month long trip…maybe the coin toss didn’t work so well. You guys shouldn’t go the way I’m going….wouldn’t
want my luck to rub off. Well, have a
good trip! Then she turned
and walked back to her van with the new water pump.
Now I can
chatter away with the best of ‘em, but this lady made my head spin….and
apparently she is a glass half empty kind
of person and does not have good adventures. J
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The buffalo at
the Tallgrass Prairie Nat’l Preserve have a different build than the buffalo at
Custer State Park in South Dakota or Yellowstone Park. They are leaner through the shoulders, their
heads are not as massive and, I don’t know, maybe their legs are longer. Oh,
for sure, they’re big and have the same little eyes in a big head, but there’s
a noticeable difference.
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I took a turn at
driving today to give Kim a break and to try my hand at pulling the
trailer. Drove for about an hour 45 minutes.
I halfway thought Kim would take a nap
since we had a big lunch, but I guess me being behind the wheel was enough to keep
him perked up. And at first, it seemed
to me that he didn’t know how to be a passenger, but eventually he picked up
his camera to take pictures of things he was seeing. That’s what I do.
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Don’t even know
what to think about this….after Kim took back over driving, I got us on the
wrong road for what our plan was. So I
directed him to take a county road to get us in the correct direction. Road surface was good, if somewhat bumpy here
and there. I was looking at the map as
we were rolling along, and glanced up as I was starting to say that the road
should curve up ahead; instead I saw a sign and said, “The pavement ends….oh,
shit, the pavement ends!!” And to top it
off, there was a monster railroad track.
Kim slowed as much as he could, but the trailer still bumped and bounced
over those tracks. Immediately stopped to check the bikes…both had come loose…Bernie
took more damage to his gas tank and has a broken light bar on his saddlebag
and Pegasus has a tiny dent and minor paint issues on the tank and the quick
release windshield quickly released, otherwise that would have cracked or
broken. I cringed when I saw Bernie….it
appears to be just a body shop issue but we’ll know more when the bikes come off
the trailer. Kim was more concerned
about Pegasus….he said that Bernie is a road warrior but Pegasus is a ‘new
bike’. When I protested that he was not
a new bike, Kim said “Well, you bought him brand new.” Yes, I bought him new in 2011, but my ‘new
bike’ has over 66,000 miles now. I have
some touch up paint for the tank, but Bernie will require more cosmetic
attention than that. On this one, I just
can’t look at Kim, smile and say ‘Just part of our great adventure, right?’ Maybe at some point but not now. And I know in the big scheme of things, this
is small stuff and I have to keep it in perspective….but right here, right now,
this sucks!!
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We changed our
plan….drove last night until about midnight just to get some miles behind us. Getting
anxious to get home to our own bed! Now
that we’re just driving to get home, it seems silly to drag it out. I hear that nice weather is supposed to be
heading toward The Mitten State. I hope
it gets there before we do! 
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