Day 24
Cowboy Up! 

DAILY DOINGS: Today is our second day in Kansas...and we're holding our breath.  Of all the crossings we've done, we've always gotten smacked with tough headwinds someplace, but not so far.  Our day into Dodge City always is a tough day even though it's one of the shortest days we have on this ride...we always have headwinds.  Today was an exception and we loved it.  The winds were light all day and when they did give us a breath, it was from the southwest just to our rear.  Kansas has made great strides in road repair over the last few years too.  Most of our route today was on a wide, smooth shoulder which made pedaling easy to reach speeds in the mid 20s for the stronger riders and near 20 for the others...needless to say we were cooking today. 

I pulled out of town with Scott, Paul, and Larry and tugged them along in the mid 20s till about the 10 mile point where we started to share 1 mile pulls to keep the speed up.  These guys are getting strong and I think they enjoyed the quick pace.  Before long a group caught up with us (Clarence, Darryl, Doug, and Bob) and then the pace picked up to the upper 20s for a few miles...loved it until I had to stop for a facilities check just short of the first SAG.  From the SAG, I spent the rest of the morning riding with the rear and talking to locals.  Just didn't want to get in too early since our rooms were probably not going to be ready until after noon.  Most of the riders were in before 11:00 in spite of the late start...but lots to do in Dodge.  It's a pretty good tourist trap.

Present day Dodge City is like every other medium sized town in the west, but it has a colorful history that few can claim.  Founded in 1872, Dodge became the buffalo capital of the world to the meat craving eastern and northern states.  During the buffalo boom years, on any day you could see thousands of buffalo hides stacked higher than the buildings near the rail road exchanges.  The meat and hides served as a major source of revenue to hunters and businessmen in the area, but one of the major underlying reasons for the buffalo slaughter was to get rid of the Indians in the area...no meat for the winter, no Indians.  The buffalo revenue period only lasted 3 or 4 years, by then most of the land had been cleared of buffalo...what next (One hunter claimed to have killed over 120 buffalo in less than 45 minutes)?  That's when cattle became the prime source of income in the area.  Dodge served as the center for cattle drives as all trails in the late 1800s crossed through town...for 10 years was the largest cattle market in the world.  But Dodge also had a rough side.  As a rendezvous point for trappers, cowboys, call girls, soldiers, railroad builders, saloon owners, and ner-do-wells, the town became notorious for violence.  Fights and killings were a common occurrence until some tough lawmen came to town...some of the famous names who served to bring law and order to the region were Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, and Bill Tilghman who put many of the law violators in a small plot for eternity..."Boot Hill."  It took 15 years, but Dodge became respectable by 1890.

Our route today followed the famous Sante Fe Trail where in the 1800s, where freight wagons took 6-8 weeks to cover the 800 miles from Missouri to New Mexico across the semi-arid plains only yards from where we were riding our bicycles.  At one marker just before Dodge City, you can still see the ruts caused by the myriad of heavy wagons that traversed the hillsides.  While this road served as a link between the eastern states and the southwest, it also caused conflict between citizens, Mexicans, and Plains Indians whose land the trail crossed.  As I stood with Herb (above left) on the trail this morning looking across the plains to the west, I tried to imagine what it must have been like over 150 years ago before our present day roads cut through the area...before our Comfort Inn was built on the route...before the McDonalds where I had lunch was built.  I would probably be sitting in an oxen pulled wagon with my family traveling into the unknown across a buffalo filled plain fearful of an Indian attack or a wild animal that had me high on his "Things to eat" list...tough life...tough times.  Makes one feel a great admiration for one's ancestors who braved this trail.  Our bicycle ride, although quite an accomplishment in today's fast paced automated world, pales in comparison.

It was a great day...easy 52 miles.  Most of the riders booked into town to do the touristy thing for the afternoon.  And where else but Dodge City could you have lunch in McDonalds in a stagecoach (left)?  We had rap at 4:45 and dinner at 5:00.  After dinner the whole group went to the wild west show at Miss Kitty's Longbranch Saloon complete with gunfight and stage show.  The show was a corny rendition with audience participation that was described by a former rider as, "Like watching a kid's play that your kid wasn't in."  But still a fun thing to do on a cross country ride.  The group got in the spirit in spite of the corny jokes...they even told the cast that it was Clarence's birthday to get him on stage...it worked.  Good sport Clarence, but pay back may be sweet if you want to pursue it.

Tomorrow we'll get the "flock out of Dodge" and ride to Great Bend...another great day in Kansas.  See you then.

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