Kanorado

Kanorado, at I-70's Exit 1, is (just a teeny little bit) larger than some of the other towns in the area, but it also feels pretty worn out.

The Senior Center, Post Office, and Museum seemed active and well-maintained, but the rest of the town feels tired and used up.

The one exception, as with so many small towns out here, is the grain elevator, which is still in good shape. While driving around the co-op, we noticed that the road going up to it is called Railroad Street, which is the same name that the co-op road had in several other towns we visited.

If you want to see more pictures of Kanorado, this guy has them!

Ruleton

Ruleton is another tiny town with some massive agricultural operations. With a lot of small towns out here, you can tell that they have dwindled down in the relatively recent past. Ruleton, though, has apparently been small for more than a century (25 people in 1910).

We thought it was neat to see some pretty large solar arrays near the grain elevator -- renewable energy could be a great way for some of these western Kansas towns to come back or hold on.

Caruso

Caruso is a small down with an ENORMOUS Archer Daniels Midland plant and not much else.

As we were driving through, I noticed again that the highways out here follow the old railroad routes. It's interesting to think about how influential the railroads were when all of these little towns were first formed, more than a century ago. And their influence continues even today, as we still take the same paths through these huge, open spaces.

Everything from commerce to travel to social interaction is still dominated by the ghosts of those old iron horses.

Goodland

After a long day in the car, we finally arrived in Goodland, site of the infamous Kidder Massacre, about an hour before dinnertime.

We checked into the KOA Kampground, which we found to be comfortable, clean, and staffed by very friendly folks.The boys especially enjoyed the swimming pool.

We stayed in a fun little kabin (yes, with a "k"), which was air-conditioned and kwite kozy. There was even a kid-sized kabin in the playground! Krazy, right?

For dinner, we were a little bit discouraged because there were several fun-looking places that ended up being closed. We probably hit half a dozen closed restaurants before we found the L & T Family Restaurant. L & T was a good find -- friendly staff, affordable prices, and great food. We would definitely go back next time we're in town.

And what visit to Goodland would be complete without a trip to the world's largest Van Gogh reproduction? It's a pretty fun thing to say, and thanks to the floodlights, you can see it even after dark.

Finally, as the sun began sinking into the west, we pulled back into the KOA and retired to our kabin for the night.

Goodland was a nice place to stay -- perhaps we'll visit again next time we're headed west.

Edson

Though it is across the county line from them, Edson looks a lot like Levant and Brewster: A small town, a grain silo, and not a lot else going on.

Apparently, though, the town has achieved some small notoriety online because of a resident's persistent (and amusing) efforts to make Edson a major presence in international sports. The town (i.e., one of the town's approximately 30 residents) has tried unsuccessfully to host the 2018 Olympic Games and Super Bowl XLIX, as well as being the host conference of the West Virginia Mountaineers.

We were happy that we got to see a train coming through, so I took a picture of this beautiful lady standing in front of the tracks.