Data: 83 miles Riding time 4:31 (18.4 mph avg)
Our ride was done at 11:55 am! We had the whole afternoon to explore Boot Hill and the other sights of this old cow town. I think everyone had a nice day.
The riding was in a fog for the first two hours, and I had to wipe my glasses constantly to be able to see. Yesterday, wiping with my bare finger worked pretty well, but today I had on my knit gloves and wiping with them did not work well at all. Oh well, I survived.
The lunch stop was at the Dalton Gang's hideout in Meade. They had dug an underground tunnel connecting a barn to a house, so they could hide or escape if needed. We got there so early, I didn't even feel ready to eat a lunch, so I just ate a few snacks and we got going again.
The scenery was flat and green. An occasional farmhouse. The distant grain towers looked as if we were approaching skyscrapers of a large city. Instead of an armadillo, we passed by a little 4-inch turtle headed toward the highway. We doubted he would live long.
With only 20 miles to go to Dodge City, we turned north and had a strong tailwind. The group was still fresh, so we flew along the flat country road at about 29 mph, with a high of 33 mph. That's me cruising in the 4th spot.
As we entered Dodge, there was this statue of a longhorn cow, commemorating the cattle drives here from Texas in the 1880s. I got the photo from Geoff, on the left, who is from Seattle. Jerry, on the right, is from Eau Claire, WI.
After we posed for that photo, we rode to the motel, took quick showers, and then walked back to the Boot Hill Museum. We saw the real thing - the original Boot Hill Cemetery, where many were buried with their boots on. They had a 13-minute video about how the town came to be to deal with buffalo hunters, and, once the buffalo were wiped out, the town served the cowboys on their drives to the railroads here. They have reconstructed what Front St looked like in the 1880s, including the Longbranch Saloon, where we had a beer. Besides Geoff and Jerry in this photo is Dave Thompson, a dual citizen of Canada and Florida.
We had lunch at the CowTown Grill, walked around a bit more, then I had a nap, a soak in the hot tub, and a "change of pace" dinner at a...Thai restaurant! These shorter days have advantages in a town with historic sight seeing.
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