Today was to have been the great leap forward -- a dash West to see how much of the Great Plains I could cross before dark. The early pioneers must have had a similar feeling -- measured in weeks rather than hours. My route (US 50) follows the Santa Fe Trail down to Dodge City and then over into New Mexico. I did want to make it to Great Bend, site of Pawnee Rock which was a fixture along the trail. But I lost my way, wandering through the low hills which border the MIssouri, an area settled by Germans who have kept their traditions and towns. Very beautiful. Reminded me of the Driftless region in southern Wisconsin. Hermann, settled in the 1830s, was clean and orderly and decorated with flags in remembrance of September 11.
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