Heading West, First Day

So we coasted along down the highway heading to the West. We were sad to leave Biscuit at the kennel but it was best for all of us. The highway was typical side road until we hit Caldwell, Kansas. Caldwell is a tiny berg with a rowdy past. Today it is only few blocks wide and long, but very nice history markers designate spots to note. I saw the Border Queen Museum on the main street and hollered WHOA. Unfortunately it was closed which we found was a common thing for many things on Mondays. The super looking Cherokee Strip museum down the road would also be closed on Monday.

However, just as we left town a gorgeous pheasant looking like a heavy transport plane lifted out of the ditch, flew across the windshield, and landed in the opposite ditch near the railroad tracks. It was an amazingly beautiful bird. Each trip west, I look for pheasants and usually find ONE for a brief few seconds.  So I took this flight and sight as a promising omen.

Shortly we slipped into Oklahoma where fields became wider and deeper, where the earth began to show shades of lighter brown and eventually red earth. The landscape gradually changed from farming to ranching. This trip I was taken with the wind mills. So many old ones stood by crumbling farm houses and I knew they all carried stories that I wish they would tell me. Some are still in use. This one was interesting as it was still in use, but it was distinctive in that the stand was not metal of today but the old wooden frames, including wooden ladder steps!

There were still nice wildflowers out.  

We pushed on the Guymon, Oklahoma before stopping for the night. We had cup of soup with crackers and herbal tea with a cookie in our room before bedding down early. Only a hour or so beyond there would be New Mexico!