Old Friends in New Places

With fun memories of our visit to Topeka we headed west once more toward Goddard for our next stop. While driving through miles and miles of beautiful Kansas country side we discussed how hardy the frontier settlers must have been to travel through and settle in various parts of the west. The many historic markers we passed along the way told of various people and events from long ago and the struggles and triumphs they experienced. Dover, KS was one of the many small towns we traveled through and there was a cafe there that advertised their “National Award Winning” coconut cream pie. Curiosity got the best of us so we bought a piece to try. After tasting it we decided that we agreed with the judges of the National Pie Contest that it was indeed a delicious pie that looked pretty as well.

Traveling through Council Bluff, KS we stopped at the Tall Grass National Prairie Preserve. There was a very informative National Park Service museum that had fascinating information about the prairie and its natural inhabitants. Since dogs were not permitted on most of the trails, due to probable interaction with wild bison, Craig and our dog Josie stayed at the visitors center while Becky hiked out to see the tall prairie grass and possibly some bison. She was thrilled with the sites she saw and took several pictures to share.

We arrived at Goddard, Kansas about 5:00 PM Friday and were greeted with a warm smile and a big “hello” from our friend, Rollin Rising, and his beautiful family. We had known Rollin when we lived in Waxhaw, NC many years ago and he and his sweet wife Jessica invited us to boondock on their property as we passed through the area. They were so gracious to share their beautiful 7 acre home place with us and even invited us for dinner as well! Jessica shared spinach and leaf lettuce from her garden and a dozen fresh eggs. It was a delightful evening together as we both reminisced and caught up with our collective lives over the years.

Today’s drive was as lovely as our other drives across Kansas. We made a brief stop in Dodge City Visitors Center hoping to get some help with “what not to miss” and parking for Wander. The visitors center was closed and we couldn’t find anywhere that would work so we did a bit of driving around and got back on the highway. 

We seem to find the best stops by stumbling across them. Today it was the Santa Fe Trail Memorial about ten miles west of Dodge City. The parking area was adequate and we met a couple from Colorado traveling in their trailer. It was interesting chatting with them. This proved to be a great spot for lunch and a beautiful hike to a true Kansas vista. 

We arrived at our Boondocker’s Welcome site and were greeted by a very hospitable couple. Their site is very appropriately called Wide Open Spaces. We parked Wander (our travel trailer) facing toward the west and are really looking forward to a spectacular sunset from our vista overlooking the prairie.

We plan to continue our westward adventures and enter Colorado tomorrow!