Well we are making another trip out west… wondering if we live in the wrong place? Anyway this trip I decided to forego the normal Interstate routes and get off the “beaten” path… well we were still on paved roads and they were still beaten pretty good but way less traffic out this way, Granted it was a little bit longer in time, but fewer miles. the time element comes because you have to slow down a lot for towns and you are not supposed to drive 75+ on the 2 lane roads… We set the cruise at 68 and did really well, in fact I think our time from end to end was nearly the same if not less and we had multiple stops on this route to look things over. We ran north on the interstate to McPherson and then hooked it west… pretty much a straight shot west from there… I was surprised to find that McPherson is some what of a pipeline cross-roads like Cushing… Although not a huge storage depot like Cushing it did have way more smaller pipelines crossing out west of town… we passed multiple pipeline stations for many miles west, almost all the way to Lyons, Ks…
Just a small portion of one of the big stations there… really hard to grab pictures of pipeline headers…
Lots of rail sidings to link to those pipelines as well..
A little further on I found a replica of the “back to the Future” court house with clock working? Well it looked similar to me anyway, just didn’t see the same street with the movie house they flashed through? oh well… lots of big center block court houses in western Kansas..
and unusual hotels and / banks, and stuff…
This whole town used the bundle wheat shocks for decorations… on all the light poles and along the main roads…
From McPherson west through several areas there were the old Red barns at all the farm houses but this one… was not red and not in good shape… and it was newer than the old red ones..? someone must have sat on it?
e made a rest stop he
We made a rest stop here as they had a really nice park with nice facilities and captured the history of the place as it was a point on the old Fort Hayes to Fort Dodge trail…
In Ness City we spotted this unusual “Bank” building that housed a lot more, like rooms, stores, etc.… I would have to say that was interesting…
I think I spotted a scouting party? although they weren’t moving much?
We stopped in Scot City for lunch and spotted this mural on one of the walls… now that was colorful and cool…
In the next town, Leoti they had a mural as well… not really sure what they were showing?
From here we roaded on through the huge towns of Towner, Brandon and Chivington ( though is nothing as it should be for the atrocity that he brought)… but made a stop at the new national park for the “Sand Creek Massacre”…
We got a “greet at the parking lot by one of the interpreters and he did a great job of introducing the site…
Thank you Mr. Medina.
The site is well worth a stop, although small it was very informative and has a great impact on the Colorado history and culture of the area that many have very little clue how it changed so much of the history in the area…
As with all the western monuments of native culture linkage, there are many ‘gifts and offerings for the sacred site.
We then made a rush to get into the Springs before dark… and made it just fine… like I said, the time was pretty much the same as the other route but a lot less hectic?
WD0AJG