After leaving Kansas City Storm thought we sure aren’t in Kansas anymore. He was wrong, we were in Eastern Kansas and there was a lot of Kansas left. That was only because I had made a last minute decision to head south west instead of west toward Wyoming and the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks. It was at this point that I had one of my first mental road blocks, two days out I started to realize I wasn’t quite ready to make the dive into solo tent camping in grizzly territory, or hiking for that matter. I changed my plans and headed toward Dodge City and eventually toward Flagstaff where I could setup a home-base with my Aunt and Uncle.
Dodge City, Kansas is famous for epic Western stand-offs. When the west was expanding the train station here provided much needed supplies and was one of the last stops for supplies before heading to much less forgiving terrain. Dodge was also a favorite stop when driving cattle from Texas, commemorated by the El Captian stature. Dodge City also had a reputation for being a tough town, known by many as “Sodom of the West.” Even Wyatt Earp, one of the most famous residents of Dodge City had previously been fired from law enforcement in Wichita after punching a political opponent before becoming a deputy. The long running Radio and TV show Gunsmoke was also inspired by Dodge City and the American Expansion.
Just after taking this photo Storm and I spotted the fugitive, Storm scared him off with out realizing that we likely could have claimed the reward if we had delivered him dead or alive.
takenbystormusa.com 