June 9

Dodge City, Kansas here we come.  Decided that this would be a fun place to visit and a good halfway point to Colorado Springs.  The Boot Hill Museum was  on our bucket list and just happen to be down the street from the RV park.  We are off to the museum.

There is a gun fight reenactment in the town square and a dinner show that night so we were all in.  There were many references to the old show Gunsmoke because it was supposed to have taken place in Dodge City.  One of the well known scenes from the show was at the Long Branch Saloon, this also was the place where saloon girl Miss Kitty used to sing.  The saloon was recreated at the museum where Walter was able to partake in a shot of Red Eye Whiskey and I had a cold sarsaparilla.  While waiting for the gun fight we hiked to the famous Boot Hill cemetery, walking right past a actual jail cell from the gunslinging days of Dodge City. 

Most of the graves had been moved except for the few that they just could not locate the bodies (yikes).  Show time, the towns people filled the street acting out a typical day in the old west when the group of cow rustlers showed up causing a ruckus, then guns started a blazing. When the smoke cleared all that was left standing were two people. 

Time for the dinner show, more like dinner theater, we got seated for dinner and all the staff slipped into their rolls, from can can dancers in a saloon to Miss Kitty singing her heart out.  Certainly was not Broadway but it was very fun.

Another fun stop we put on our list is the town of Liberal, the home of the Dorothy Gale house (you know from the wizards of Oz!).  Next day we started our 70-mile drive to Liberal which gave us plenty of time to take in the landscape of Kansas, if you like crop fields, cow feed lots, meat processing plants and OMG wind turbines for miles and miles you will love a day drive on Kansas’s Hwy 50.  

Arrived at the Gale house, where we were the only ones looking to tour the house.  They asked if we wanted a guided tour so of course we said yes, who wouldn’t.  Out comes this young girl dressed as Dorothy (with ruby red shoes) and her little dog toto too. Off we go down the yellow brick road to the house, once inside our Dorothy showed us all the rooms to include her bedroom just as it looked in the movie.  Now this is where the real fun begins our Dorothy started what seemed to be a one-woman three act show.  The lights went dark, and Dorothy started calling out for Auntie Em and Uncle Henry over and over again when everything stopped and the lights were back on, we were in Oz.  Dorothy took us through her story in Oz and how she met Glinda the good witch, Tin Man, Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion and of course the Wicked Witch and the Wizard. The tour/show was a little primitive but cute and fun at all at the same time.  Well worth the drive.  Next stop Colorado Springs and time with family.