Bloom

Bloom had a grain elevator, a number of houses on a dirt road, some very old buildings (a few falling apart), and some of the most patriotic hay bales we'd ever seen. 

We also saw a little brick house that reminded us of Fowler's tiny jail. The boys wanted their picture taken in front of it as likely inmates.

Kingsdown

Kingsdown is a semi-ghost town that had a hard time getting started in the first place. The post office was opened in 1888, closed in 1891, reopened in 1892, and then closed again in 1893! I bet that felt like whiplash to the poor townsfolk (and their correspondents). Finally, it opened for a much longer period in 1904, staying open until 1994 this time.

In town, we saw a number of small, aging homes and barns, a grain elevator, a church, and a cemetery. We also saw a bait shop in an old railroad caboose.

Bucklin

When we came into Bucklin, there were combines harvesting the wheatfields outside of town. In town, we saw a couple of grain elevators near the railroad, pointing to Bucklin's origins as a key shipping town at the intersection of two railroads. 

Main Street is a mix of businesses and vacant buildings. There's some cute tire art on the side of the road, a John Deere dealership, the Bucklin High School (go, Red Aces!), and lots of very small houses. We also found a 1936 auditorium and some very treacherous dips in the city roads. We think we escaped them with impunity.

Ford

Ford is a small town with a park, a few dirt roads with houses on them, and a couple of churches. It's surrounded by farmland, and of course there are a few grain elevators. Main Street has a post office and some historic buildings. It also has an RV Park named Havens Secret, as well as some very old and ruinous houses. In the backyard of one of the ruined buildings, there is a really cool-looking treehouse.

One of the most interesting features we saw in Ford was an old abandoned school building with a sign saying "Ford City Library" out front. Across the parking lot, there's a ball diamond that has goats grazing on it.

Windhorst

Windhorst is a small community centered around a huge Catholic church: Immaculate Heart of Mary. It was founded in the late 1870s by German immigrants who had been promised that the Santa Fe Railroad would build a spur down to the settlement. That promise never materialized, but the church that they started served the community for more than a century, and the school was also a cornerstone of the community for several decades. 

Not much remains besides the church and the Holy Cross Cemetery. There's also a stone monument with lists of each graduating class from the school. We spent a long time in the cemetery and high school graduation memorials, following the threads of life and death that wove these people together for generations.  

Bellefont

Bellefont is a whole bunch of chemical tanks on wheels, a large yard full of ancient trucks and a deteriorating shed or house, some very large grain elevators, and wind turbines all around. It looks like it's never amounted to a lot more than a stop on the railroad.

The kids were really impressed by the robotic arms on the elevator scale.

Spearville

There are a LOT of wind turbines around Spearville, and they know it. On the edge of town, there's a Windmill Restaurant and a Turbine Bar and Grill. The high school mascot is the Lancers, which is probably a nod to the town's name, but I like to think it's after Don Quixote.

Spearville also has a city pool with water slides, a really nice park where we ate lunch, a business district, and grain elevators. There's a neat old bandshell at the corner of Main and Avenue A, and the downtown streets are brick. The town has a lot of of nice homes, some pretty old and some pretty new. St. John's Church is beautiful and made of brick. Overall, this struck us as a really nice, well-maintained little town.

Wright

Wright is a small town with some dirt roads, small houses, a few trailer homes, and grain elevators near a Koch Industries fertilizer plant. There's also a senior center, a post office, and a small auto service place.

There's a really nice park near St. Andrew's Church and Parish Hall, but it said private property so we didn't play there. We also didn't play in the cemetery, though it was a very appealing one. Not sure what I'm looking at in this picture... pretty wife, I guess.

Between here and Spearville are many wind turbines.

Howell

Howell is a few houses by the side of the highway next to a grain elevator. Nearby, there's an old building that maybe once was a church or school with a merry go round in the yard and a fence around it.

Wilroads Gardens

Wilroads Gardens is a small community with an airport just east of Fort Dodge. But the most interesting part of the town to us was this really cool monument!

The Coronado Cross monument, a mile and a half east of Fort Dodge, marks the site of the first Christian worship service in the North American interior. It's worth the hike up the hill to get a close look. The view from up there is also pretty nice.

The youngest ones were restless, so only Myrick, Matt, and I made it up this time.

Fort Dodge

On our way back from Colorado, we stopped in Dodge City for the night. The next day, we drove around Fort Dodge, a small, well-preserved fort that was originally built during the Indian wars of the 19th century.

These days, the fort has housing for veterans, with many modest, well-kept private homes on the grounds.

Since the museums were closed when we came through, we spent most of our time at a small park near the side of the road. It was created in 1970 by the Disabled American Veterans Department of Kansas. There's a decommissioned cannon, a gaudily painted red, white, and blue fountain, and some picnic tables.

Here, we captured a few rare photos of all six of us since my little sister Tabitha was along for the ride.

While the park isn't too fancy, it was certainly a nice place to get out and stretch our legs before the long drive home.

Dodge City

We stayed in Dodge City on our way home from a trip out west. We were tired from a long trip and I was stressed out because our van had broken down in eastern Colorado. Getting it fixed was harder than I expected in a region where we had very little cell phone service.

Because of all this, we didn't really see too much in Dodge City. This was a shame, since the town has a long and interesting history.  The museum downtown seemed really expensive, especially since it was the off season and they didn't have the daily gunfight going on.

We did stop at a very nice little Mexican restaurant, El Charro, for lunch and to borrow their phone so I could call my slippery mechanic in Colorado. It was a good town to rest for the night, but we were glad to be on our way after lunch the next day.