Sunday, November 04, 2012

Saturday 3rd November- Dodge City – a bit of a disappointment really



We had breakfast provided by the Hotel and when passing through the hallway one of the staff mentioned they were having a big ‘event’ at the back of the hotel with the Fire Engine, Police and cook up and as guests we could attend if we wished. So we delayed our departure from the Hotel until about 11.30 thinking by this time, whatever they were doing would be up and running by now, only it wasn't  The girl who had been posted to check tickets was snuggled under a warm blanket but still looked cold which is not surprising as it was around 6 degrees C. There was hardly anybody there apart from the fire crew and hotel staff, perhaps three or four kids playing in the bouncy castle and not more than three or four adults. We talked to the fire and ambulance crew for a while and discussed gun laws, politics and our route. They made a couple of suggestions where to visit but they did not sound too exiting.  So after about half an hour we skipped and went looking for the only other supermarket called Walmart and this is a new facility and quite smart for a Walmart we thought and we looked at their fish counter, only there isn't one just frozen which actually looked better than the previously frozen at Dillons. We decided what we  would by later in the day and then left for down town and as it was now nearly one pm we stopped at burger chain we had not tried before called A&W and it is a little different in that you do not line up fast food style but either sit in your car and order via a microphone or sit inside and press a red button to say you would like to order. There was slight difficulty as their Mexican Spanish was considerably better than mine and so we did not get quite what we wanted but the burgers were really very tasty indeed.
Down town Dodge City is a sad place and perhaps we were out of season but there are many empty shops and most shops seemed to be owned by Mexican and so there were lots of Spanish signs everywhere. We followed the road down to the Boot Hill Museum and took a few photos from the outside but it was empty and we did not see much point in spending cash to look at false shop fronts and so wandered back to car via side streets. We sat in the car and looked at each other and said another day in this town would be too much and so we would start some planning upon return to the Hotel. En route we picked up some bits and pieces from Walmart and then did some investigation on the internet whether to continue east to Wichita or Oklahoma City but then finally decided that Amarillo in Texas sound more interesting and so changed our current Hotelk booking back to two nights and found somewhere via Hotwire in Amarillo at a price of two nights for the price of one here in Dodge City. So tonight we have prawn Caesar Salad and unfortunately there is some ‘Fat Bastard’ Chardonnay left which needs to be finished or it will go off.
So early start tomorrow.