Meandering the Country

Dodge City, Kansas May 13-16, 2024 Matt Dillion ensured our safety during our stay! For our trip to Dodge City, we stayed at Gunsmoke RV Park.  Sounds hokey, right?  I had ZERO expectations for our time there.  It was a convenient location for stopping off on our way home, giving Dick a break from driving and an opportunity to get some laundry done after having stayed at the state park.   Gunsmoke RV Park Chester's "Gravesite" Our backyard neighbors! It turned out Dodge City has quite the history and made for an interesting visit!  First of all, I want to acknowledge the fact that, until A.D. 300, the Hopewell tribe lived in Kansas, followed by the Mississippi tribe, who were then joined by the tribes of Kansa, Osge, Missouri … you get the idea.  Enter Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, who crossed the Arkansas River in 1541 arriving near what is now Dodge City.  He came in search of the “cities of gold” and claimed the territory for Spain. When no go...

May 4-13, 2024 Our time in the Hill Country was too quickly over and the West Texas region was soon upon us!  I’d been itching for some time in Texas’ state parks so, for this stay, we camped at San Angelo State Park !  This park was only a couple of miles outside of San Angelo, so it was really the best of both worlds. Once we were settled in, we chose to spend one of our days exploring the park and another day exploring the city of San Angelo.  For our day in the park, we took advantage of the Dinosaur Trail to get our steps in.  This trail was amazing!  Most of it meandered through a desert-like environment, which doesn’t sound too exciting until you realize that it is spring time.  Yep!  The desert was in FULL bloom! There were prickly pear cacti for as far as the eye could see.  On top of that, there were so many other beautiful flowers.  The trail was only three and a half miles long, but we navigated it at a tortoise’s pace, as I was c...