We don’t seem to be rising as early as expected these mornings. We think it may be due to the cool mornings (low 40’s in some spots) and the hibernation factor. We’re aware the sun has risen yet, are more inclined to turn over and go back to sleep when it’s this cold. We’re hoping for warmer temps on our way home via the southern route to encourage us to get earlier starts.

Reading from an old book The American Guide (1949) we learn about such highlights as the stone marker (1838) on the Ohio-Indiana line and mention of the aroma of fermenting mash for whiskey (Greendale, IN) familiar for more than 100 years. Fifty-five years ago when the book was published some of the sites mentioned are of course not present today. With the exception of the tobacco farms and the Seagram plant. As US 50 enters Indiana the scenery is "characteristic Hoosier country" quotes the book. Typical of fall in Indiana are the goldenrod, wild aster and gentian bordering the roadsides. Limestone cliffs rise out of farmland area. Parallel to Route 50 run the old B&O railroad tracks.

We’re enjoying the sound of the freight trains late at night. We cannot see them, but their whistle tells us they are not far away. Among other sounds at Red Hills State Park (IL) were acorns dropping all over the forest and on top of the camper, and best of all, two Bard owls hooting back and forth.

After stopping at SEIOC, the community action agency in Aurora, IN (people Linda worked with before retiring last week from her job of 30+ years with the State of Indiana) and sending our log from their computer, we got back on US 50 around 12:30 eastern time and headed west. From the bluffs in Aurora you can look at the Ohio River and watch the barges going up and down. We did so late last night.

Heading across the state of Indiana we pass through Versailles with its beautiful winding roads, fall leaves and national and state parks. Continuing west we drive through North Vernon, Seymour, Bedford, Washington and Vincennes and Olney (home of the albino squirrels so don’t be bringing in any brown ones) before we cross into Illinois.

Some Route 50 history:
One of the longest highways in the U.S., Highway 50 stretches from Ocean City, Maryland to Sacramento, California, passing through Washington D.C., Cincinnati, St.Louis, Kansas City, Carson City, Lake Tahoe, and Central Colorado. From coast-to-coast the highway is 3,073 miles long. In 1972, legislation shortened

Hwy 50 replacing the road to San Francisco with Interstate names. However, before that, Hwy 50 went from Sacramento to San Francisco via Stockton and Oakland.

A significant historic transportation corridor, Rural Route 50 in the east dates back to the 1700s when travelers in wagons and carriages and on horseback journeyed from Washington to Winchester. Lodging and provisions were provided in the small agricultural settlements along the route. Route 50 was an important travel route during the Civil War and the home to many battles and skirmishes. The surviving 18^th and 19^th century houses, shops, mills and inns are now home to families and businesses. Keeping business in their towns, the local residents either work from home (telecommuting) or work close by, at stores, businesses and even vineyards. This helps keep the money coming back into the communities. Lots of tourists drive this route and enjoy stopping at the unusual shops.

Future plans for Highway 50 include four-lanes from Pueblo to the Kansas state line. We encountered much of this roadwork across Kansas. Long-term construction will take several years to design and acquire right-of-ways. The reason for the widening project is to make the road safer for travelers to pass slow-moving farm equipment.

When passing through St. Louis today, we were just hours ahead of the Bush/Kerry debate. Our initial destination for tonight was Kansas City, KS and a night at the KOA campground. Upon our arrival in KC we called KOA for directions only to discover they were full. They directed us elsewhere, back 34 miles east to Odessa and the Country Gardens RV camp. Seems most hotels and campground spaces are taken by the time of our arrival at 6:00 p.m. as folks gather to hear Billy Graham speaking in KC at the Arrowhead Stadium the next three nights.

Not only were we just ahead of the Bush/Kerry debate to be held in St. Louis, we witnessed picketers on the 68^th day of their strike at the service and parts departments of St. Louis-area car dealerships. About 1,800 Machinists and Teamsters have been on strike since August 1 against 61 dealerships over the issue of helpers, a lower-paid, less-skilled job classification.

We spent some time in the historic district of Sedalia, MO today where in June they hold the Ragtime Festival honoring Scott Joplin and his ragtime music. The State Fair is held here in August. Sedalia is also the home of the Katy Trail State Park, considered the country’s longest rails-to-trails conversion, and a trailhead of the Katy Trail. Pat and I rode 86 miles of the trail in 1993, but more has been added since. In 1986 the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad ("Katy") stopped running between Sedalia and St. Charles. Ten years later the Katy Trail opened to hikers and bicyclists. The trail begins at the restored M-K-T Depot in St. Charles and runs west. Trailheads with facilities are placed about every 10 miles.

As the Gateway to the West, Missouri teems with history. At times we caught a glimpse of the Missouri River traveling through historic Jefferson City (the state capitol whose state capitol building is modeled after the U.S. Capitol), Independence (the original start of the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails), Overland Park, and of course, Kansas City. Playing explorer one could attempt to retrace the Santa Fe, Oregon and California trails (pay no attention to the shopping malls). Known for its jazz and barbecue, KC, like St. Louis was where musical greats Miles Davis, Chuck Berry and Duke Ellington started out in the saloons and clubs. Missouri also produced businessmen Eberhard Anheuser and Adolphus Busch (Anheuser-Busch, Inc.), and Joyce C. Hall, who in 1910 began selling picture postcards and turned his mail order business enterprise into Hallmark Cards Inc.

We drove over 10 hours today so we didn’t make many tourist stops. It was killing me not to be able to stop each time we passed a thrift store, garage sale, flea market or rummage sale. This area is a haven for bargain stores and flea markets. One could plan a trip with just that in mind: Stopping at each thrift shop or flea market throughout several states/towns along Route 50. Regardless of the size of the town, and many are no bigger than 2,000-4,000 residents, there is a Dollar General and a Dairy Queen. You can count on it.

Once again, we’re setting up camp in the dark. Tonight the lights aren’t working so I’m writing by the light of the lantern. Just when we thought we’d gotten through a day without incident. Pat and Linda are doing laundry. The night is warm, about 65 degrees after a rainy ride for most of todays route. The first rain since traveling in the east.

Traveling over portions of the original Lewis and Clark Trail, we drove from Odessa, MO to Dodge City, Kansas today, over 300 miles. With the usual 4,000 potty and puppy stops, it never seems that long. Our big treat for today, though, was unexpected and unplanned. Leaving Odessa at 8:30 a.m. we took 131 to Hwy 50, right through the middle of town. Driving down main street we noticed the streets were lined with spectators, some standing, some sitting in lawn chairs, patiently awaiting something. Looking up we noticed a banner announcing the "First Annual Odessa Marching Invitational." We immediately pulled over to the curb, parked the SUV/camper and got out to watch the parade. What fun it was. Twelve marching bands and seven judges; the bands represented middle and high schools throughout the state of Missouri here to perform in the first invitational. An all-day event, the school bands would perform in parade competition, field and drumline competition. We watched for an hour talking with the locals and some parents of performers from other towns. Unfortunately, we had miles to go before our next destination otherwise we would have stayed to watch the entire event.

Before leaving the parade area, one of the event staff handed us $5 for the NDSDF fund-raising cause.

As we reluctantly left town, we spotted a house decorated for Halloween: The best we’ve ever seen, with all the usual characters: Frankenstein, ghosts, pumpkins, Dracula, Shrek, the Jolly Green Giant, the Pillsbury Dough Boy, skeletons, and various body parts. Halloween is big in all the states we’ve traveled through so far, as evidenced by lawn and house trimmings.

It’s nearly 500 miles across Kansas passing over America’s agricultural heartland. We go through dozens of small farming towns, as well as areas where there is little more than a general store or gas station. As far as the eye can see are miles and miles of road, hills and trees. No shopping malls for miles. Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

This is the heart of the Wheat Belt where most of the country’s grain is grown: As much as half the bread baked in the U.S. is made from Kansas wheat. This is also prime cattle country. We pass many cattle feed establishments, not knowing just what they do yet the grounds are covered with cattle of various sizes and colors. Then we spot the cattle carrier with its logo along the side of the truck: "Last Chance Ride." We all go silent.

While in Dodge City (pop. 25,000) we become tourists looking for notorious places like the Boot Hill Museum and a recreated Front Seat with regular gunfights. Only traces of Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp remain; the same for Boot Hill where an office building now sits. Not much of the old town is left but it’s still known as the "Cowboy Capital of the World."

Across from Boot Hill is the Kansas Teachers’ Hall of Fame: The one and only Teachers Hall of Fame anywhere in the country.

Dodge City today is a busy farming and cattle-ranching community with many stockyards surrounding the downtown area. Most of the 4,000-5,000 people who work in the feedlots and slaughterhouses are immigrant workers from Mexico, hence, the many Mexican restaurants and grocery stores in town.

We’re at the midpoint of our journey west and tomorrow’s a shorter driving day (200 miles) so we hope to see a few sites. Stopping at an RV store Linda inquires about the popup’s electrical problem. They’re about to close for the day and the only person around is a salesmen. He doesn’t think it’s the fuses. We spend the night at the Gunsmoke Campground, right off of Hwy. 50. A very clean, well-run site. After eating homemade hamburgers and rice made on the grill, and s’mores over the campfire, we turn in at 11:00 p.m.

The RV next to us is also traveling with three dogs: Two minipins and a 4-month old Great Dane. We’re in good company.

One of the best-preserved sections of the Santa Fe Trail is along US 50. Wagon wheel ruts are located nine miles west of Dodge City in a rolling field 100 yards north of where tourists park. A depression in the soil, they are approximately 800 yards wide and two miles long. The boardwalk leads us to the area where the remnants of the wheel ruts are made in the dirt. It was during the years from 1822 to 1872 when pioneers in their covered wagons made their way from St. Louis to California across this trail. Further west is Cimarron where the main track of the Santa Fe Trail crossed the Arkansas River and headed southwest across the plain of Jornada del Muerto. The first two times we crossed over the Arkansas River it was dry. Going through Lamar, CO, just over the Colorado border, we spotted some water running down the Arkansas.

We go through Kinsley (Midway USA), paralleling the mainline Santa Fe Railroad tracks, across the flattest and emptiest 50 miles of Kansas. Cornfields, tumbleweed and wheat are what you see among the rolling hills and flatlands. It’s beautiful in its plainness. What is noticeable is the lack of trees. A lone tree dots the landscape, here and there, as though they are an afterthought.

The gas prices are staying about the same. They fluctuate from $1.81 to $1.99.

We stop briefly to investigate Camp Amache, a relocation camp for evacuated Japanese-Americans during WWII. East of Lamar near Granada, Amache was built on 10,400 acres of prairie, originally Cheyenne Indian hunting grounds and named after the Native American wife of a white man. Opened in August 1942, Camp Amache housed as many as 7,500 Japanese-Americans evacuated from California. These prisoners lived in this community consisting of one square mile of buildings, barracks made of frame and tarpaper, churches and a hospital. A family of 12 shared one room, 20x25 feet. Sleeping on straw filled bags, they ate in mess halls, made furniture and ran a silk-screening factory creating thousands of posters. The "prisoners" also raised vegetables, planted cottonwood trees and dug irrigation canals, making the best of their situation. Today, a memorial to those who died in camp stands, as does a sign, trees and sod planted by local youth.

More history
In March of 1931, the state highway commissioners of Kansas announced their plan to inaugurate a hand-surfaced Hwy 50 through Kansas to connect the Santa Fe Trail at the Kansas-Colorado state line. They asked Colorado to do the same and in June, the Hwy 50 Association was organized in Salida.

The committee was composed of representatives of civic organizations and the county commissioners in Montrose, Gunnison, Delta, Saguache and Chaffie counties. The Association’s main purpose was to make sure Hwy 50 received a standard hard-oiled surface. Despite obstacles involving the Royal Gorge and Continental Divide areas, reconstruction and oiling for a hard smooth surface began in 1935.

Construction of Hwy 50 in the West continued over several years and in 1948, two Colorado organizations that were promoting Hwy 50 merged into one, the Colorado Hwy 50 Association with Pueblo as the central point. Divided into two sections, the organization proposed to publicize the highway with the theme "On the romance trail through the treasure chest of the west."

Tonight we camp in the John Martin Reservoir State Park, Colorado’s newest state park, near Lamar, CO.