19th and 20th June - Dodge City & Kansas City

Yesterday (19th) was a difficult day to say the least. We had to check out of our hotel at midday and our train was not due to leave for Kansas City until 0034 - so we were orphans in a strange city for 12 hours - and in a city that has nothing going for it at all! But things turned out not so bad in the end and two things were in our favour - we were able to leave our luggage at the hotel for the day; and it started out quite cloudy so it was not as baking hot as it was on Thursday.

We decided to spend as long as possible at the Boot Hill Museum (as there was nothing else to do!) and in the end we spent the whole afternoon and evening there. The cemetery itself is now only ‘pretend’ as all bodies were dug up and removed to a ‘proper’ cemetery when the then Town Council decided they wanted to build a school on the site, but even so, it is very authentic.

The Front Street buildings are reconstructions, exhibiting hundreds of original artefacts. They represent Dodge City in 1876, and were carefully researched through historic photographs and newspapers, so we wandered in out of the shops and exhibitions, and because we had so much time to ‘waste’ there we probably got a lot more out of the museum than we would normally have done.

‘Entertainments’ were included in the entry price and although they were interesting they were a bit like watching an amateur drama production! We had a Chuckwagon Dinner in one of the saloons at 6pm - very nice tender braised beef (our thoughts went back to the poor cattle we saw in the feedlots the day before - but only beef was on the menu) with creamed sweet corn, potatoes and coleslaw followed by ‘Grandma Sally’s Apple Crisp’. During dinner we were entertained by one of Dodge City's top Country and Western Singers!

He sounded a bit like he looks!

After dinner we sat though another ‘gunfight’ - the same as the day before but with a different cast, then at 7.30 we went to the Long Branch Saloon to see a Western style variety show complete with can-can dancers. That was quite good too.

After all that finished it was almost 9pm when we retuned to the hotel and we were able to remain in the lobby watching TV or reading and using the restrooms there to freshen up before taking a cab to the station at 11.45. And lo and behold - the train was on time and we departed smelly Cow Poo City at 12.35. We were not sorry to leave.

To give some idea of what Dodge City is like here is a photo of Wyatt Earp Boulevard showing one of the many enormous grain silos and huge 'sweet smelling' cattle truck driving by!

We had to board the train and settle in our seats very quietly as most other passengers were sleeping. We both took a sleeping pill and settled down to try to sleep. I managed to fall asleep around 0315 - I just couldn’t get comfortable but Terry was well away before then. We were vaguely conscious of the train stopping a couple of times and new passengers getting settled in but before we knew it, it was 0630 and the train guard shouted out over the train loudspeaker system that we were about to arrive in Kansas City. The train must have been speeding along (no freight trains to hold us up I suppose) as we arrived almost one hour early. After a sleeping pill and only 3 hours sleep I had a very hard job waking up and getting my brain into gear!

Today (20th) we both feel a bit spaced out. We had breakfast at the wonderful Kansas City Union Station in a 50’s style diner then took a cab to our hotel arriving around 8.30am not knowing whether or not we could leave our luggage until check-in time or not. Luckily the reception clerk was very accommodating and for an extra $20 we were able to check in early. So by 9.15am we were both asleep and remained so until 11.15 when we decided that we really ought to get up and get out to see a bit of the city.

We took a bus into the city to ‘Crown Centre’. It was a very nice shopping mall but, as usual, many of the shops were eating places! Outside in an open space there was a wonderful water feature area where water fountains spurted randomly out of the ground and lots of children were playing in them. It was fun to watch. But, although it is very hot and humid here, we experienced our first rain for the whole trip so far (except for snow in the Rockies and a bit of drizzle on the cruise). It lasted a couple of hours then cleared up to blue sky and hot sun again.

A quiet evening and very early night is planned!