Friday, July 8, 2011

Day of Travel

Today we resumed our journey.  We were supposed to go to Ft. Riley where Bessie lived for a few years but we didn't end up making it.  It was just too far out of the way.  Tomorrow we will arrive in Denver where we will pick up Left Lane Joe (my dad).  I have to say I'm really happy to give up some of the driving!  I didn't take any pictures today.  We did see some historical sights and will post more about that tomorrow.  Kansas is much different than I was expecting!  We haven't seen any wheat, sunflowers, or bluffs, all of which we thought were plentiful here.  Also, it's not nearly as flat as we expected.  The hills roll kind of like a roller coaster and Jeremiah had a lot of fun riding up and down them today!

I am very disappointed about not going to Fort Riley. My Roxaboxen was there.  It was a bluff in back of our apartment building.  Friends and I spent hours playing on that bluff.  That bluff was a school on some days, a horse ranch on other days, and a forest on yet other days.  I have very fond memories of it and I just wanted to see it.  Maybe next summer.  My husband says it's probably all built up and maybe I would have been disappointed.  For now, it remains a wonderful place in my memory.

We ended up on Route 36 in northern Kansas.  It was very pretty with fields of wheat against a beautiful blue sky.  But I didn't see any bluffs!!  Route 36 is the original Pony Express Highway.  The geographic center of the lower forty-eight states is on this highway, near Lebanon.

Route 36 in Marysville, Kansas is the Pony Express Memorial Highway, because it follows the original route of the Pony Express route.  The Pony Express was a mail delivery system.  Riders rode horses from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California, delivering mail.  Every ten to fifteen miles, there was a station, where the rider changed horses.  After about seventy-five miles, the rider handed his mail sack over to another rider.

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