Wednesday - July 27 2022 - Freemont NE to Dodge City KS

Today we made the big transition from corn and soy in eastern Nebraska (looks just like Iowa) and sparse grassland of western Kansas.

No breakfast at the hotel (no coffee maker in the room, no cups, no extra blankets..) so we stopped at McD's and got a couple english muffin egg thingies and coffee. Today's plan was to stop in Lincoln Nebraska and get a tour of the state capital. A couple hours and we were parked in front of it (free parking) after talking to the nice tourist info lady the other side of town. Deb scored 4 or 5 state maps (she has a thing for paper maps). We got to the capital building just in time for the 10am tour led by a young woman trainee and her boss. The building has 14 floors but the pretty parts are on the first couple floors. Nebraska built it between 1922 and 1932 or so and they built it under budget and they built the new building around the old one so they could keep building. Nebraska has a unicameral legislature (senate only, no house) and they have 49 "senators" for the states 1.9 million people. And they only meet part time and they are paid $12,000 per year. The building is very impressive. The tour guides were crucial to point out each mosaic and it's meaning in the history of Nebraska. After this tour we realized that state capital tours are on our list as we start travelling more in the US.

Then we told Google Maps to get us to Bisbee and see where it takes us. We ended up heading west on Interstate 80 for a while, stopped at the Kearney Archway that goes over the interstate and said nope to the $13 per head they wanted to go through the museum. We did snag some free popcorn and soon turned south off the highway. We looked at places to end the day so we could get a hotel and decided Dodge City Kansas would be a little out of the way but might be interesting. The rest of the day we headed south and mid afternoon saw the landscape change from corn and soy fields to grassland. It's starting to feel like the south west again.

We got to the hotel around 7pm and found a place to get a couple salads at a restaurant at the local golf club. 

Then we went downtown to see what Dodge City was all about. We were expecting a kitschy tourist trap like Tombstone AZ, given our hotel was on Wyatt Earp Road, but it was kind of disappointment. They do have a couple museums but Tombstone definitely out kitsches them. But I caught out of the corner of my eye a Muffler Man with a sombrero hat on.  We stopped and discovered that this Muffler Man belonged to movie star Dennis Hopper ("Easy Rider", Peter Fonda, ..). Dennis was born and grew up here in Dodge City and loved Muller Men. He owned two of them himself and when he died, they were given to the city. This one is called "La Salsa Man".

Dennis had another Muffler Man that ended up in another town in Kansas. I guess there wasn't enough room for two Muffler Men in Dodge City..