First time in Kansas

I a definitely teaching an art class at the rally so I have to stock up my supplies. Hobby Lobby here I come!

Moving further East and still on I70 took us up. And I mean up too! Over 11,000 ft at one point with many miles of 8% and steeper grades. The rig was down in 1^st gear, flat out at 4500 rpm going 30mph. Still the old girl made it and didn't overheat or anything dramatic.

Yep a tunnel at 11,158'

We had a couple of nights in Golden Colorado where we visited the Colorado Railroad Museum. This is definitely worth a stop. Look up their schedule to get a ride on a real steam train. Their workshops are interesting as they restore both the rolling stock and the actual engines in their Roundhouse.

Colorado Railroad Museum

You don't see many of these around!

We also found a nest of Elks Lodges. There were 3 withing about 15 miles of the campground we were staying at. We found out too late that one of them has camping facilities that aren't listed in the RV directory. We visited the Golden Lodge first but they had a power outage and told us to try the Lakewood Lodge which is famous for a big stained glass window they rescued from Denver Lodge 17 when it was being redeveloped. Along with seeing the window we lucked into their Boche Ball league. They have about 5 Boche lanes and 60 active players. Better yet they have the grill going outside and a nice shaded area to sit and eat burger and hot dogs. No guessing where we ate dinner that night!

Finally we found ourselves in Kansas. It's the first time for us and we get to add another state to the list at the side of the blog. I had found a campground called High Plains CG right off I70 near Oakley KS. It was shown as having “Captain Jack's Pub” on site. It turns out that “Captain Jack” and his wife who own the CG were from Hampton VA. Not only that but they served Chesapeake Bay seafood! We had their Maryland Crab Cakes made with Old Bay seasoning. It took us back to our 25 years around Baltimore and Annapolis MD. Very pleasant.

Barbara saved a buffalo from being killed by an illegal hunter right outside the Buffalo Bill Culture Center. What are the odds! Very brave Barbara.

Barbara saves the Buffalo

Buffalo Bill has several museums across the country. We visited the one in Cody WY a couple of years back. It turns out that Buffalo Bill was very much a product of his own ego and of several dime novels written by Ned Buntline. The same gentleman invented Wild Bill Hickock who's name wasn't William or even Hickock! It's apt than that this center is in Oakley KS. Which has nothing whatever to do with Annie Oakley, and the

Buffalo Bill Culture Center has nothing much about him, mainly because he never came here! It does mention that his legend was formed “In the area” which considering the size of the Prairie here about is a pretty broad description!

Street art in Dodge City.

We also stopped in Wichita for a couple of nights, one of which was spent watching huge thunderstorms circle around us and hearing reports of tornado's forming and softball size hail. Luckily none of it came near us. Also luckily we posted on Facebook that we were in the area and our good friends Marty and Peggy sent us a message that they were in the area too so we went stayed an extra night and caught up on their news.

L-R Me Marty, Peggy and Barbara