Day 33--Dodge City to Cameron, Missouri

Enid's homemade pastries, Boot Hill B&B, Dodge City

Kurt and Enid at their Boot Hill B&B, Dodge City

We said goodbye to Kurt and Enid at Boot Hill B&B today after we enjoyed another wonderful breakfast. The large bowl of fresh fruit that started us off contained strawberries, blueberries, several kinds of melon, kiwi, pineapple, and grapes. 

Kurt promptly brought out pots of hot tea and a plate of Enid's homemade pastries. Today we had turnovers filled with mixed berries and apples and cinnamon roll muffins topped with caramel and icing. Both were wonderful! 

Instead of eggs and bacon today, we opted for oatmeal with cream, pecans and brown sugar. That oatmeal reminded me of the "porridge" we loved so much in Ireland many years ago.

Thanks, Kurt and Enid, for your great hospitality and the wonderful food. We enjoyed your lovely home very much!

On the way out of town, we stopped at the scenic overlook Kurt told us about. Ron had questioned him about how there could be an overlook in an otherwise flat location; Kurt chuckled as he told us what the overlook looked over. A cattle feedlot! Appropriate, I think, in that cattle really brought Dodge City to life.

Sparky & Lucky ride a horse
at Dodge City scenic view

Note to Susie: tell Steve his prediction about Dodge City was not true!

We pointed the Prius east and headed across the rest of Kansas. Our destination for the night was Cameron, Missouri. Before we reentered the larger cities, however, we had one more park to visit: Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in the Kansas Flint Hills. This area is part of the remaining 4% of natural tallgrass prairie in the United States. 

Milkweed

Butterfly weed and butterfly

This is a truly lovely place. We took a short hike up to a high point that looked out over the prairie in several directions. It's not hard at all to imagine what it might have looked like 250 years ago, when the bison still roamed the area. I was amazed at the number of wildflowers and butterflies in this beautiful grassland. There are a number of springs in the area and rainfall has been good so far this year, so plant life was abundant. We heard lots of birds singing, and we even saw one that was new to us--the dickcissel. This small bird had a beautiful song. We saw a pair that were apparently nesting. You can read more about them at this Wikipedia site.

Scenic view of Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

Dickcissel

Colored lizard

We also found a flower that was new to us--the catclaw briar or sensitive briar, which has beautiful pink powderpuff style flowers. It looks like it could be an invasive species but it is actually a native to the central United States. It reminded me of the mimosa tree in Mattie's yard (Mattie was our favorite neighbor as I was growing up).

Lower Fox Creek School, Tallgrass Prairie

There are a number of historic buildings on this site. Right now all are under restoration and not open to the public, but you can read about them at the park website. The main house was built by Steven Jones in the 1870s. It is truly a mansion. Because there was lots of sandstone on the property, he added stone walls around the property, about 31 miles of them! The walls are amazing themselves, but you would have to see the other buildings to really appreciate them. I'm hoping we'll be in that part of the country again after the restoration work is done.

Jones mansion, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

Jones barn, which has three stories. On the back side of the barn are ramps
that provide access to the top floor!

After the tallgrass prairie, we had more driving in store for us. We both commented that we knew we were getting closer to home today--we have been in much more traffic, there are lots of billboards along the roadsides, and we found a Cracker Barrel! And we enjoyed our dinner there also!! 

I'm headed to bed. Tomorrow is a big day for me. We're stopping at the Missouri Star Quilt Company in Hamilton, Missouri! 

--Shann