Where money grows on trees

Dodge City, KS – Some days, it’s really clear to us that we are traveling in the off season. Most of the time, it means we can see things with relatively small crowds and sometimes even get a private tour. On other occasions, like today, we were on our own.

We drove out to the east end of Dodge City to see the original site of Fort Dodge, the first settlement here established in the late 1860s to protect the military and pioneers from hostile natives. We arrived at the site and turned in, following a sign for the Visitor Information building. The fort area encompassed several buildings, some of which appeared to be fairly old and others, houses really, that were much more recent.

We drove slowly through the whole compound, looking for the Visitor Information building without success.  We spotted the museum and library building and turned in, but a sign on the door indicated its open hours – Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Not today.

Finally, near the entrance, I went in to the general store and café to ask where we were supposed to go. There were a few round tables with chairs, one customer drinking coffee, and some kitchen staff behind the counter.  One of the ladies greeted me and showed me a rack with tourist brochures, and pointed out a building down the street we had already checked out that she said was the Visitor Information building. It was devoid of any sign and didn’t appear to be open either!

We did see some old sandstone buildings that used to be barracks and a command center, but the main activity on the grounds now is a small veterans’ hospital, the modern version of the Old Soldiers’ Home that Fort Dodge became when its primary role ended.

As we headed back in to town, we wanted to find a Dodge City coffee mug to add to our collection. There were some Boot Hill Museum mugs at the gift shop there yesterday, but we wanted one with Dodge City on it. In a town where large hotels have been built to house the many visitors who come every year, you’d think even at this time of year there might be one or two nice mugs around. Not so much. After four stops, we gave up, remembering that the RV park office had some souvenirs we could check out.

Before heading back to the park, we stopped at the Lucky Liquor Store to pick up a bottle of wine. In a number of states we’ve visited, wine is available at the grocery store, but not in Utah or Kansas. As Val made the purchase, I spotted an adorable little tree at the cash with wire and pompoms and flowers made out of pleated dollar bills! Not everywhere does one see money growing on trees. So I took a picture to share.

Anyone looking for cowboy-themed items would love the collec-tion at Gunsmoke RV Trav-L-Park! They had cowboy statuettes, ceramic horse heads, purses that looked like saddles, figurines shaped like striking rattlesnakes and yes, coffee mugs with “Dodge City” on them. So a day with a few frustrations ended in success.