Stateside

On a whim, I decided to go on a trail ride...

in Nebraska!

Tammy, at Horsetrailriders, has been writing about a yearly trail ride they take on the Friday before Mother's Day. Even though it's not a long ride, about 15 miles, it is a big event. (There were over 120 horses last year.) I wanted to go because it sounded like so much fun. I've never ridden over bridges before. I used to ride in Illinois and the scenery is very different from New Mexico.

I asked my Mom if she wanted to go for a road trip and she readily agreed. (I get my wanderlust from her.) We arranged travel plans, made hotel reservations, and set out early Wednesday morning along with my 20 year old daughter, Sheila, and two dogs: my Mom's Pug, Toby, and my Japanese Chin, Buddha. FYI- a few posts ago, I posted about Toby's eye. It is doing much better now although there is still a little redness and swelling.Several years ago, the three of us travelled up to Oregon to visit my brother. On the way home, we drove and ferried up to Vancouver Island. If you know your geography, Canada is north of Washington state, which is north of Oregon. lol!

We missed the ferry to Seattle, so we took a a 3 hour car ferry to the city of Vancouver in Canada and then drove down to Seattle. We could have waited for the next ferry but this was much more exciting! What an adventure! We had a great time and lots of memories were made along the way. But this post isn't about that trip.

We headed out early Wednesday morning and drove through Texas, stopping in Dalhart to do some letterboxing.

Along the way, we saw lots of silos which we don't have in New Mexico.

We drove through Oklahoma and I got pulled over for speeding! Oh my!! Those little towns will get you, you know. They post varying speeds just to trick you up. What a bad first day!

Along the way, we visited Dorothy's house, from the Wizard of Oz, in Liberal, Kansas. and attempted to find a letterbox on a train there.

Alas, no luck. However, it was interesting to see a statue of Coronado in Kansas. He is very well known in New Mexico. Sorry for the "artsy" photo. The sun was directly behind so you can't really see what he looks like.

We stopped to eat at Bob's Burgers in Mead, Kansas. Is there a Bob's Burgers in every city? Anyway, it was a quaint little place that's been around forever- there were yearbooks dating back to 1966! The place was old fashioned but the food was good "old time fast food".

We spent our first night in Dodge City. Let's just say, it was unremarkable. There was a heavy bovine aroma in the air and lots of road construction along the main street. We arrived too late in the day to do sightseeing and it was very foggy in the morning so we didn't see anything to appreciate except this sign.

In the morning, we grabbed a bite to eat and hit the road. My mom and my daughter were getting tired of letterboxing by this time, so we agreed to only do one more. We stopped at the midway point in the USA at Kinsley, Kansas. There is a little museum, church, and an authentic sod house on display. It is definitely worth a side trip! However, plan to spend some time seeing all the displays.

There are so many wonderful things to see in the museum. There are dress exhibits and rooms full of wonderful artifacts. Sheila is not so sure she want to get her hair done here. Notice all the clamps and wires hanging? This is an old hair stylist's chair. Imagine getting "plugged in" to get a perm! Scary!This is an old photograph of the sod house. Today, the museum is built around the original sod house to keep it from deteriorating in the weather.This is inside the sod house. Kinda cozy, isn't it?I love this old barn we saw along the way.

To be continued...

Stateside - song: Stateside, artist: Tin Machine, album: Tin Machine II