High Plains of Kansas

We spent the night in Wichita. Nice place with a busy downtown. It was real busy and active. Or maybe we showed up like tourists during the Trolley Tour in Downtown Memphis. The people are very nice. Unless your on a bicycle. If you're on a bike they like to gently encourage you to ride safely, "Get off the road!" Uhh...thank you.
We are driving across the High Plains of Kansas. They are vast and amazing. I like to imagine what they looked like before they were parceled up, ploughed and planted. I wonder what the pioneers were thinking. When do you just stop and stake your claim. Did the pioneer children ask, "Are we there yet?" How often? If modern, overstimulated kids ask every half hour then I'm guessing pioneer kids asked every eight hours. Did the dad theaten to pull the wagon over or just reach back behind the wooden bench to dust the kid's heads?
I was prepared for the wide open country, sparsely dotted with tiny, quaint towns. But I'm amazed at how little traffic there is (we are driving the small highways). What is really amazing is the scarcity of life out here. I'm not used to driving in the country without the constant company of the turkey buzzards, floating above and providing a distraction. None of them out here. There seems to be nothing for them to eat. There are no carcasses on the road out here. Maybe there are better drivers here or maybe these plainsmen are hungrier than our hillbillies back home. No, I don't think so. There just isn't much life that is not in fences, or unfortunately crammed by the hundreds in pens at the feed yards.
We visited Dodge City. We saw some wildlife there. Just not four-legged wildlife. There was a Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday store of every kind. The Doc Holiday Liquor Store was open but the Wyatt Earp Liquor Store was just tumbleweeds. I guess Doc was faster on the draw. We were on the Santa Fe wagon trail. Saw Boot Hill. Been there, done that.
It has been hot out here. In Oklahoma City, it was 101°. Between OKC and Wichita, the temperature gauge just said "Help!" Dodge City was more mild at 93° and tonight we'll we in Denver wearing a jacket.
The family unit is still intact. The kids haven't killed each other. I haven't killed either of them. And Robbie is still letting us tag along. We are doing better now that we have gone across country. Still a long way to go.