Day 53 -- Emporia to Dodge City, Kansas -- 232 Miles

The surprise of the day as we drove was farm product known as S

Today we awoke, as we have so many days this fall, to the sound of rain pitter-pattering on the aluminum skin of the rig. Sometimes the rain came gently, and sometimes it fell heavily, making us certain that wet highways and the incessant flip-flop of windshield wipers would be accompanying us as we traveled west and south on Route 50 towards Dodge City, Kansas.

Based on the placement of camps along our intended route, we knew we had to drive a few more miles than usual today from where we spent the night in Emporia, Kansas, in order to get to Dodge City, and the "Gunsmoke RV Resort." The Gunsmoke appeared to be the last camp we could count on as we head for the northeast corner of New Mexico.

We have chosen to drift in a southwesterly direction from our camp two days ago in St. Joseph, Missouri, because it seemed to be getting progressively rainier and colder at St. Joseph's latitude. In fact, we had to dig out the heavy-duty comforter from the storage locker after I had to wear socks to bed the previous night.

Now here we are in Dodge City, and the weather is close to perfect. We lost the rain about mid morning, though we continued to be buffeted by a strong cross-breeze all day long. I don't think the wind was strong enough to lift the lea-side tires off the pavement, but sometimes I was afraid it might.

Sorghum or Milo? We started seeing a funny sort of plant with long pointy leaves and a huge seed cluster at the very top of the plant. The leaves tended to be dark green and the seed cluster was a sort of brick brown. Neither of us had ever seen this plant before. After passing hundreds of miles of either corn or soy beans, it was actually rather jarring to see this markedly different plant.

Here's the story on this plant from Wikipedia: "Sorghum is a genus of flowering plants in the grass family Poaceae. Seventeen of the 25 species are native to Australia, with the range of some extending to Africa, Asia, Mesoamerica, and certain islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. One species is grown for grain, while many others are used as fodder plants, either cultivated in warm climates worldwide or naturalized, in pasture lands. Sorghum is in the subfamily Panicoideae and the tribe Andropogoneae (the tribe of big bluestem and sugarcane)."

"One species, Sorghum bicolor, native to Africa with many cultivated forms now, is an important crop worldwide, used for food (as grain and in sorghum syrup or "sorghum molasses"), animal fodder, the production of alcoholic beverages, and biofuels. Most varieties are drought and heat-tolerant, and are especially important in arid regions, where the grain is one of the staples for poor and rural people. These varieties form important components of forage in many tropical regions. Sorghum bicolor is an important food crop in Africa, Central America, and South Asia, and is the fifth-most important cereal crop grown in the world."

"In the early stages of the plants' growth, some species of sorghum can contain levels of hydrogen cyanide, hordenine, and nitrates which are lethal to grazing animals. When stressed by drought or heat, plants can also contain toxic levels of cyanide and nitrates at later stages in growth."

"Global demand for sorghum increased dramatically between 2013 and 2015 when China began purchasing US sorghum crops to use as livestock feed as a substitute for domestically grown corn. China purchased around $1 billion worth of American sorghum per year until April 2018 when China imposed retaliatory duties on American sorghum as part of the trade war between the two countries."

So, as Concetta read to me today on the subject of Sorghum, this crop could take the place of more water-intensive plants. That could mean the difference between starvation and plenty in times of drought, even in the U.S. I was so fascinated with the new (to me) plant, that I just had to stop and take a few photos. Later I found myself wishing that I had "borrowed" a seed head to see if I could get sorghum to grow in Nevada.

Our lunchtime stop today was fun. We pulled off the two-lane and into the small town of Macksville, Kansas about noon, located the town park, then picked a level spot near the kid's playground. There are so many towns in the central part of the U.S. where the main street is largely boarded up and vacant, and such was the case with Macksville. Still, we could tell that the residents really, really cared about their park. All the benches and picnic tables (and there were many) had been recently painted a vibrant color of red. A small stream coursed its way diagonally through the park, and the residents had taken the time to construct two sturdy and picturesque stone bridges so that strolling couples could cross the tiny brook. And the playground equipment looked clean and well maintained. I decided to try the large slide just to make sure.

Our next adventure towards the end of the driving day was to Old Fort Dodge, which is just a six miles south of our highway 50 route from Emporia to Dodge City. We turned off Route 50 just a few miles short of Dodge City and headed down to Route 400, which runs from Wichita to Dodge City.

Before we had gone more than a mile on Route 400 we came across a historic marker and we decided to stop. Incredibly, the marker was placed to commemorate the journey of Francisco de Coronado who traveled through the southwest in 1541(Photo right).

According to Wikipedia: "Francisco Vázquez de Coronado y Luján (1510 – 22 September 1554) was a Spanish conquistador and explorer who led a large expedition from Mexico to present-day Kansas through parts of the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542. Vázquez de Coronado had hoped to reach the Cities of Cíbola, often referred to now as the mythical Seven Cities of Gold, which is a term not invented until American gold-rush days in the 1800s. His expedition marked the first European sightings of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River, among other landmarks. His name is often Anglicized as 'Vasquez de Coronado' or just 'Coronado'."

Back in the rig after getting acquainted with Coronado, we were soon pulling up in front of Fort Dodge. Not seeing any signs that forbid our entrance, we rolled right on in and down the street toward the parade grounds. Seeing no RV-friendly parking, we simply found a semi-vacant lot near the church and parked. From there we did our exploration on foot.

We wandered around taking photos for about a half hour until we finally reached the Visitor Center. Unfortunately the office was closed and there was no one around to answer any questions. We knew that an "old soldiers' home functioned on the base, but we didn't really have much to go on in the way of history.

We got excited when we saw that one of the structures adjacent to the parade ground was called the "General Custer House," but we subsequently learned that General Custer may or may not have stayed in the house as the 7th Calvary traveled southwest toward the subsequent battle of the Washita in 1868.

Here's a few more details about Fort Dodge from Wikipedia: "The site of Fort Dodge in the U.S. state of Kansas was originally an old campground for wagons traveling along the Santa Fe Trail, just west of the western junction of the Wet and Dry Routes and near the middle or Cimarron Cutoff."

"On March 23, 1865, Major General Grenville M. Dodge, who commanded the 11th and 16th Kansas Cavalry Regiments, wrote to Colonel James Hobart Ford to propose establishing a new military post west of Fort Larned. On orders of Col. Ford, Captain Henry Pearce, with Company C, Eleventh Cavalry Regiment, and Company F, Second U.S. Volunteer Infantry, from Fort Larned, occupied and established Fort Dodge on April 10, 1865."

"Fort Dodge was named for General Grenville M. Dodge. General Dodge wrote in his autobiography: 'Fort Dodge was named after me, not as an honor, by a command that I was sent out there in the winter, after it was too late to furnish them lumber or anything for an encampment and they had to make dug-outs in the Bluffs for the purpose of wintering and the Colonel in command of the detachment wrote me that they were so mad at being sent there in the winter with so little accommodations that they had named the place Camp Dodge. This location was a celebrated crossing of the Southern Indians of the Arkansas Valley.'"

"'There was a practical ford of the Arkansas near here and the trails all centered here and it had been an important point during all the time I was in command of the plains. From Camp Dodge, when a permanent post was ordered there, they named it Fort Dodge and after the war when the fort was abandoned, a city had grown up there, which is now known as Dodge City.' It has, however, been claimed that the post was named for Col. Henry Dodge. Moses Henry Dodge (he dropped the 'Moses' when he came of age) led the Second Dragoon Expedition of 1835 in a circuit to and from Fort Leavenworth, west along the Platte River to Colorado and back east along the Arkansas River and the Santa Fe trail, passing through the future location of Dodge City and Fort Dodge. There is no evidence that he established a camp at the site."

"Fort Dodge was used to maintain order along the Santa Fe Trail between there and Fort Lyon, Colorado. The post was raided by Indians several times, with many horses being stolen and a number of soldiers killed in the raids. In a June 1865 raid, the US Army Inspector-General, D. B. Sacket, reported the Indians took every horse at Fort Dodge. Corporal Leander Herron received the Medal of Honor for heroism in action about 12 miles from Fort Dodge on September 2 and 3, 1868."

"The first buildings were constructed after the Civil War. These generally are believed to have been sod houses for the officers and dugouts for the enlisted men cut into the bank along the Arkansas River, along the south side of the post. However, Sean Creevey, a professor at Dodge City Community College, claimed that all the first housing consisted of "dugouts with canvas roofs dug into the bank of the Arkansas River." He denied any were built of sod or adobe."

"Later, the dugouts were replaced with wooden and stone buildings. In its heyday, up to four companies of troops occupied the post. Apparently in its later years only about a dozen men occupied it and their main duty was to provide escorts to protect mail passing through the area. In 1882 the post was closed. A single custodian was assigned to keep watch over the property. A number of buildings were torn down or moved away, but many of the stone buildings remained."

"Dodge City residents worked to have the old fort used for a retired soldiers' home, since most of the buildings were still functional. After much work toward that goal, a federal law was enacted in 1889 authorizing the use of the post as a soldiers' home by the State of Kansas. In early 1890 the Kansas Soldiers' Home was opened on the site. The Soldiers' Home has been maintained at Fort Dodge ever since. Numerous improvements have been made through the years and the public can tour part of the site."

Once we had walked back to the rig and navigated off the post, all without being challenged by anyone, we rolled west on Route 400 for just a few miles before reaching Dodge City and our westside campground. Since I had called ahead early this morning, our campsite was ready and waiting for us. And that is just about it for the day other than the bit of laundry we did.

Tomorrow we're headed further to the southwest and will cross the panhandle of Oklahoma before dipping into the very northeast corner of New Mexico at the town of Clayton. From Clayton we have to make a decision, mostly based on the weather and expected temperatures, whether to continue west through New Mexico, or whether to track slightly north and west through Colorado. Nothing definite yet.

And when you are searching the horizon for you next great camping experience, The Happy Wanderers wish you happy travels and exciting destinations.