When I did venture outside I was loving the view of the lake so I went down to take some photos of the view and to enjoy the morning a bit. My mom and Dixie were already down enjoying the water.

We have taken Dixie to a creek before (it was oak creek canyon north of Sedona, AZ) and she was so scared of the water. No matter what we did we could not get her in it so when I saw her wading through the water at the RV site I was amazed. I took photos, of course. We threw stick for her to fetch and she had a great time.

We got the whole group together for a traditional group photo at the campsite, I was feeling a bit artsy- see how I got some pretty flowers in the shot? I thought it was cool!

All the animals have behaved remarkably well on this trip. We have had 2 cats escape the RV through the screen door but we noticed and retrieved them before they got too far. Gabby and Hailey will sit with us while we are driving down the road, all my boys (my male cats) hide under the bed while the RV is moving.

Here is a funny video of Dixie, we stopped to take photo with a few giant fake farm animals in a park. Dixie was not comfortable with the huge cow.

We visited the Dodge City Museum before heading towards Emporia, KS and had a great time. We learned about the historic buffalo slaughter that occurred. Apparently the government felt that killing all the buffalo was a good way to drive the native Americans out of the area and to end the conflict between the cowboys and “Indians”.

While we were browsing the shops I was looking at the rag doll kits. With them you can make your own rag doll like they did back in the day on the wagons. This reminded my mom of one of our relatives who was orphaned during that era.

Apparently her parents feared for her safety while they were traveling by wagon (since the native Americans were attacking the “white man” who were attempting to take over the land). This relative was left on the side of the trail for someone fleeing the land to adopt and take to safety. The only thing this relative had when she was left on the side of the trail was one of those rag dolls.

Here are some the photos taken at The Dodge Museum, some are a bit funky because of the lighting in the place.

After we finished up at the Dodge City Museum we headed out on the 400 towards Wichita, KS to do our mystery shop. Along the side of the road we spotted some fun “whirly-gigs” in Mullinville, KS  (zip code 67109). We pulled off to admire them and take photos. Basically the owner of the land shares political opinions via a slew of entertaining and eye catching yard decor. It is sure a sight to see!

Next we drove through Greensburg, KS, This town is significant because about a year ago it was hit very hard by a tornado and now it is being rebuilt all Green (as in environmentally friendly and energy efficient). We pulled off to take photos and take the sights in. You can still see the devastation left behind by the tornado but they sure are rebuilding! As you exit the town you get to see a fun little sign.

Once we arrived in Wichita, KS we did a mystery shop at a tanning salon, N was the one tanning since he is he whitest one out of the two of us. He tanned for 10 minutes and was told he wouldn’t see results with such a short tanning time. The gal tried to suggest the most expensive tanning session to him and wasn’t educated about the process or eager to help him through his first time tanning experience. As a result he had an awful experience!

2 hours after his tanning he was looking like a lobster and was feeling like crap. They didn’t have him use a tanning cream or any kind of skin protectant and he was even talked out of getting protective eyewear. We are tanning salon people so we had no idea about whether or not you are supposed to burn to a crisp, he did…

Check out the next posts in the series:

• Road Trip Day 5 – Emporia, KS to Kansas City, MO
• Day 5 continued – Kingdom City, MO to Stanton, MO
• Day 6 – Stanton, MO to Evansville, IN
• Days 7-11, We are here but the chaos continues
• Sitting in the garage, watching Ike blow through.
• OMG, we are actually living in Evansville…

or you can checkout the previous posts in the series:

• Road Trip Day 4 – Dodge City, KS to Emporia, KS
• Road Trip Day 3 – Logan, NM to Dodge City, KS
• Road trip day 2 – New Mexico to New Mexico
• Road trip day 1 – Arizona to New Mexico.
• We pull out tomorrow…

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The post Road Trip Day 4 – Dodge City, KS to Emporia, KS appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

When we got to our overnight destination last night I attempted to upload the photos and found out that my September image folder on WordPress is not writeable or something, so I had to upload them to my photobucket account instead. If you click back to yesterdays post you’ll now be able to view the photos. Sorry about that.

Okay, so on to the updates on day 3! We went from New Mexico, through the top west corner of Texas and Oklahoma then entered the southwest part of Kansas.

We awoke after staying the night at Ute State park in Logan, NM. When the sun came up we were happy to see that our site was right by the lake. We headed out to get a group photo with the lake in the background.

The morning started out with us visiting the campground bathrooms for shower time. It was sure eye opening! The showers were button operated and there was no temperate control so that was the first odd thing. Once we got undressed and in the shower we were unpleasant sprayed with what felt like a power washer. I couldn’t believe how painful the water pressure spray was and it was not warm either.

My mother and I were cursing and going on about the painful experience. My nipples practically sprayed off and to top it all off the water would turn off every 10 seconds so you had to press the on button repeatedly while trying to rinse your hair and body. It was the most unpleasant shower experience ever!

If you are staying at Ute State Park in Logan, MN I would not recommend using the site showers. It think a sponge bath would suffice or you can just stay dirty. The pain is not worth it, trust me.

The entire day we were quite chilly and bundled up, it started with the cold showers and continued with the overcast weather. We did not encounter any real weather but we sure had to use blankets to keep warm while in the RV. We also didn’t have too much planned for sightseeing but we enjoyed visiting things we spotted along the way like the “Back At The Ranch” Antique shop out near Dumas, TX where my brother got his girlfriend some cute earrings.

We were planning on stopping in at a starbucks to get our WIFI fix along the way but as fate would have it actually finding the hidden starbucks locations was not happening. We ended up driving down a residential street and “WIFI jacking” some persons unsecured wireless internet. We needed to map out a gas station and we were also on the hint for a Walmart so we could buy sweatshirts to keep us warm.

We were planning to hit the Dorothy House in Liberal, KS but failed to consider the time change between states therefore we arrived in Liberal about an hour and a half after they closed so we sadly missed that attraction.

Our evening destination was the Watersports Campground in Dodge City, KS which was also on a very pretty lake that we were able to enjoy. We treated ourselves to a dinner out at Casey’s Cowtown Club where we enjoyed some fabulous Kansas steaks.

Check out the next posts in the series:

• Road Trip Day 4 – Dodge City, KS to Emporia, KS
• Road Trip Day 5 – Emporia, KS to Kansas City, MO
• Day 5 continued – Kingdom City, MO to Stanton, MO
• Day 6 – Stanton, MO to Evansville, IN
• Days 7-11, We are here but the chaos continues
• Sitting in the garage, watching Ike blow through.
• OMG, we are actually living in Evansville…

or you can checkout the previous posts in the series:

• Road Trip Day 3 – Logan, NM to Dodge City, KS
• Road trip day 2 – New Mexico to New Mexico
• Road trip day 1 – Arizona to New Mexico.
• We pull out tomorrow…

Powered by Qumana

The post Road Trip Day 3 – Logan, NM to Dodge City, KS appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.