Dodge City, Kansas

When Daddy was a young man, coming home from World War II, his troop train stopped at Dodge City, Kansas to take on fuel. The returning troops were made to stay on the train. Daddy had pulled KP duty the day before, and his sergeant said to him, “Hey Corporal, jump down from this train and run over there to the station to get me a newspaper.” He gave Daddy a nickel and Daddy jumped down from the train. Inside the station, he had to wait in line to buy the paper. As he was walking back to the box car being used as the kitchen, the train started away from the station. Daddy tucked the paper under his arm, and holding onto this cap, began to run. All the other guys in the KP car, hollered at him, and held out their hands, and Daddy made it to the train in time for them to pull him aboard as the train was leaving. Thus, he made it back to Texas and home. A few more seconds, and he could have been AWOL, all because of the sergeant and his newspaper. Daddy told me this story last night when I called him from the road.

It was 111 degrees in Dodge City yesterday. There are 27,000 people living here now. I imagine it was a much smaller place in 1945. We stopped at the Boot Hill Museum before we got a motel room. The museum is a tourist trap. We bought some souvenirs and left. They don’t allow dogs, not even leashed ones, on Boot Hill. We couldn’t leave her in the car. The temperature inside the car said 121 when we got back, and we were only gone about ten minutes. She was, as she always is, ecstatic to see us.

Today we will strike out for Missouri. Hopefully there will be better internet there. The weather everywhere is too hot for traveling. But I am pouring out my bucket list. I can now check off Kansas. That leaves about 15 more states I need to visit before I die. And another item on my list -- seeing the fireworks on the National Mall on the Fourth of July -- I will be checking that one off next Wednesday. In the process, I also get to see my son and his partner. I miss my “connections” to the world and to myself. My sweet son is one of those connections. A most precious one.

Onward ....