Day 8 - the Santa Fe Trail

The first order of business this morning was to get the Jeep washed.  It was pretty dirty from the trail in Moab.  Now at least the dust and dirt is gone.  It will get a good washing when back in Pennsylvania!

Today is mostly just driving again.  The scenery was not much to look at but always changing.  Much more irrigated farming and cattle raising here than I have seen before.

I did have to do a bit of detouring.  Part of US 50 was closed for some reason.

I only stopped at a couple of places along the way.  One was the Amache Japanese Internment site in Granada, Colorado.  There is a series of interpretive displays but not too much of the camp remains.  There are roads, a few foundations and the foundations of the guard tower.  In the town there is a museum but since I'm avoiding museums at the moment, I elected to pass on that.  Here's the Jeep in the parking area where the majority of the exhibit pieces are.  Its pretty isolated but there was another family that came along after I got there and someone else arriving as I left.

The Santa Fe Trail, a 19th century route between Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico, runs in part along US 50.  It was primarily a commercial route, supplying the west with eastern trade goods.  There were a number of markers along the way.  I stopped at a few.  The second of these photos was at a spot where you could still see the tracks in the ground where all the wagons traveled.  It was difficult to see but was a depression in the ground that could be seen if you looked carefully.  It did not photograph well so the photo just shows the grassland that they traveled through.  They could make 18 to 21 miles a day, taking 6 to 10 weeks to make the 900 miles.

The last trail marker was just west of Dodge City, Kansas where I was stopping for the night.  My hotel is right next to the Boot Hill Casino, but no...I'm not going in.

Here's a shot that was a just for fun shot.  I could see the Jeep in the back of the truck in front of me.  Most trucks are not that shiny.

Tomorrow is a drive to Pittsburgh..wait for it...Kansas.  Just a spot that is about 5 hours east and has a less than 10% increase in its Covid numbers.  Some places I looked at were up 60% in the last week so I avoided them.  Not sure this makes sense but I have to decide somehow!

The route is:  https://goo.gl/maps/ugbTYcLX58eSip1b8