Now that all the exciting mountain riding is over, it's time to buckle down and get the long, flat riding done. There's not much to write about the ride today, we hit the road at about 9:00. We've noticed that we are getting later and later starts every day as we near the end. Even though we get to bed reasonably early, this waking up and getting going in the morning keeps getting tougher. We left on US-50E, and there would be no road change today. Our destination is a hotel in Dodge City, Kansas that is off the same US-50E.
     The road was straight and flat . The temperature started out at about 81 degrees and by the end of the had made it up to 88 degrees. There was very little wind, even for Kansas. We now know why they are called the Great Plains, as they couldn't be plainer or more boring. No wind, not hot, not cold, no scenery, nothing. Just point the bike east, set the cruise control to 70, crank up the tunes and go! There were a few small towns along the way we would pass through, but nothing worth taking a picture. We also lost an hour as we changed over from Mountain Time to Central Time.
     When we pulled into Dodge City, it was about 3:00, and the hotel was excellent. We dropped off our stuff and headed over to the Boot Hill Museum. It was actually very cool. They had a 15 minute movie about the beginnings of Dodge City, and a complete full sized replica of the downtown city buildings set up as a museum. They had lots of original artifacts, original guns, tools, clothing, equipment set up to look like it was at the time. Some of the smaller buildings were the actual building that had been moved into the museum grounds . They had lots of period photos that really brought to life what it must have been like at that time. There was also a section dedicated to the TV series Gunsmoke which was supposed to have taken place in Dodge City.
     All in all, it was a fun afternoon walking through the museum. They also have a gunfight show at 7:00, so after we were done looking around, we headed back to the hotel to get some dinner. Not a lot to pick from for dinner, so we just walked over to the IHOP in front of the hotel. About 6:30, we grabbed the camera and headed back to the Museum for the show.
     The show was pretty good, lots of fighting and gunshots. They fire lots of blanks, so you get the noise, and the air gets filled with smoke. The show lasted about 20 minutes, and by the time they were done, most everyone was dead. So we gave them a round of applause and headed back to the hotel.
     Tomorrow isn't expected to be much more exciting than today. We turn south and head for Oklahoma City. The weather is supposed to be good and it should be an easy ride.

287.0 miles today
17,996.7 miles total

9.933 gallons today
427.749 gallons total