Pioneers and Cowboys in Kansas

     Before the sun was up this morning I was mopping up a pool of water on the floor of the RV.  Rick got up to use the bathroom just after 6 and hurried back into the bedroom to put on his jeans and shoes.  He said that there was water all over the floor.  I got up and started mopping up water while Rick turned off the water at the pump.  With the lights and our glasses on we determined that the valve in the bottom of the toilet was stuck slightly open which kept water seeping into the toilet, but it wasn't open enough for the water to flow down the drain.  There probably wasn't more than a gallon of water and we were able to fix the problem quickly.  Rick went back to bed for a while.
    We packed up our wet rugs and drove south into Kansas.  The landscape is beautiful, rolling waves of grasses and wildflowers.  I wish that I could paint and capture the harmony of colors of autumn on the prairie.  Maybe I will try a quilt!
     Kansas is crisscrossed with trails.  First the pioneers and settlers came through on the Sante Fe, Oregon and California trails.  As we rolled along at 65 MPH I thought of the thousands of travelers who walked alongside their wagons day after day in search of good land on which to build a dream.  I channeled my inner pioneer woman and imagined myself in a sunbonnet, a calico dress and apron, and bare feet.  After a long day of driving we gathered our wagon around the campground and I cooked our dinner.  I am quite happy on this chilly night that my campfire was a propane stove and that we have a cosy, warm bed to climb into.
    We are spending the night outside Wellington, Kansas near one of the end points of the Chisholm Trail.  During the Civil War Texas cattle were prevents from being shipped north. When the war was over there was an abundance of  Texas cattle, as well as a pent-up demand for beef in the northern states.  Cattle were worth only $3 to $4 a head in Texas, but ranchers could get ten times that in the East. Immediately following the war, cattle were driven north from Texas along trails - particularly the Chisholm Trail - to the Kansas trains.  Cowtowns began to spring up along the railheads.   I remember all the TV westerns portraying these cattle drives and the rowdy cowtowns at the end of the trail.  In our rowdy cowtown tonight we had a beer and a snickerdoodle cupcake.  Our mighty steed will carry us into Oklahoma tomorrow and Rick will have to listen to me sing songs from the musical.  Yippe ki-yo ki-yay!