Day 20- Yet another change of plans, but we're now in Colorado!!

We had orignally planned to do a short trip today of about 135 miles over to Colby, Kansas, and do a Camp Wal Mart, but we got there early, about 11, and then moved on all the way to Lamar Colorado. 

Part of our needing to go to Colby was the fact that there was supposed to be a Pilot fuel station there, so Bette could exchange  the GPS we bought a few days earlier, since it has a bad antenna.   Turns out this is some sort of affiliate Pilot store, and they didn't have the one we have in stock anyway, so no exchange.  Grrrrr.  We found the nearest one, but it was a hundred miles out of the way, so we looked further, and found one in the metro Denver area, and we'll be there in about a week or so.  So she called the store, and was told no problem on the return.  Relief. 

We wound up putting about 323 miles today, traveling 7:42, with an hour and 45 minutes worth of stops, at two National Parks, and for a quick lunch and fuel stop in Colby.  Averaged 54.3 mph, Max of 66.3.  Trust me, I thought Kansas was flat, but the Eastern Plains of Colorado have nothing to hold to vast expanses of open land, divided by a two lane ribbon of road, with lots of big trucks and today, wind again.   Bette snapped a couple of shots, but they didn't turn out, so here is a borrowed one:

We travelled for 200 miles with 30 and 40 and I suppose 50 mile vistas of the horizon, with grasslands, wheat fields, corn fields, and cattle ranches on either side of us. Totally awesome sight. 

Early in the day after leaving Hays, Kansas where we began the day, we stopped at Nicodemus NHS, which is a rarely visited (3500 visitors a year, the Rangerette told us), that is the ancesteral home of the first all black settlement built for and by black settlers. At one time the metro area of the town was about 700, today, about 21 permanent residents.  The big event in town is at the last week in July, when about 700 folks come back for an annual reunion of the original families.  We watch a trio of excellent videos about the town, which as small as it was, had two professional football players come from there!  The Rangerette made an outstanding presentation of the history of the place, and we enjoyed the stop.  This is park number 119. 

The visitor's center is in the old town hall, and they have some well done displays of what the town looked like back in the day, from its' founding in 1877.  Today, mostly retirees live there, except for the big reunion. 

After Nicodemus, we made our way to Eads, Colorado, which is the site of the Sand Creek Massacre NHS, our 120th park. 

Sand Creek was the site of the slaying of some 600 Arapaho and Cheyenne in 1864.  There is a very small visitors center, and the actual battle site is 23 miles from the town of Eads. 

From there, we went the last 35 miles or so over to Camp Wal Mart at Lamar Colorado.  So now we are 2 days ahead of schedule. 

Today, the weather moderated a bit, yesterday, we had highs of over 100 degrees.  For much of the trip today, it was in the lower 80's, and I was surprised it said it was 88 here in Lamar.  The big thing is the huge winds... we really felt them today driving, and there was a lot of passing truck whoosing going on, but we kept to the road fairly steady.

Biggest problem as we are parked is the wind.  It's really gusting, as the weather report said it would- and we had to put the TV antenna down, as a precaution, as the way we are parked is totally cross wind. 

Note that the overnight low for tonight is supposed to be 51--  yikes- and then tomorrow the weather in the area is to be decidedly cooler, and the overnight lows in the very low 40's for the rest of the week... Back to jeans and sweatshirts!!  But at least, we won't have to run the generator all night.

Tomorrow, there are some stamping sites in La Junta, and then if we can get in, we will try to go to Hasty Colorado to the John Martin  Resevoir and get in early. 

Tomorrow, we will have been out 21 days... Originally when I started to plan this trip, we were to be here in 9 days.... Better planning!!!

Bette seems to think that 200 miles a day is about right.