6-15-17

We finished laundry and showers and we were back in the tent right at 10:00. A family with 3 kids a mom and dad arrived while we were doing laundry. There tent was up but the dad was banging around setting up a camp kitchen and chopping wood. They also has a fire going which all sounds very nice but they were up around the fire and making noise until about midnight and with the rainfly off, I had trouble going to sleep. It did not really start cooling off until around midnight and with the cooler temps and the quiet I fell into a solid night of sleep. At 6:00 my alarm went off and I really did not want to get up. The temperature was around 62 and I was actually sleeping really well. 

A warm shower and a fresh set of clothes and we were breaking down camp and filling up with gas by 8:30. Lo and behold, there were Krispy Kreme donuts in the gas station and it becomes officially a road trip with donuts. We had about a 2 hour drive to get to Nicodemus. This was the first free black settlement after the civil war. They survived the changing conditions and prospered in the town until the railroad decided to skip them and the 60's turned the town into another forgotten farm town. 

Back on the road, a two hour drive had us at Ft. Larned. This was a frontier fort on the Sante Fe Trail that served as a trading post and protection for travelers on the way west. 

I've got to say that by this time I'm ready to leave Kansas behind. The flat fields and lack of trees are simply not for me. We drove west into Colorado stopping for gas and a car wash (I've killed a lot of bugs), to take our picture at the border sign and pick up a Colorado state map. We stopped at the John Martin State Park and have a campsite right on the water.